A 14-2 record is tough to improve, but NIU men’s swimming coach Dave Clark is optimistic as he puts his squad in the water today in a 1 p.m. meet at Anderson Pool against the Loyola Ramblers.

“This should be the best team we’ve ever put together,” Clark said. “We lost only five scorers from last year’s Midwest (regional) meet. We’ve got three super freshmen swimmers and four newcomers in diving. They should replace those points and then some.”

The three freshmen that Clark is excited about are Jack Yetters, a high school All-American from Rolling Meadows High School and twin brothers Mike and Mark Oostman, out of Elmhurst’s Timothy Christian High School. Stagg High School’s Larry Kirk and Andrew High School graduate Mike Gotkowski round out the list of newcomers.

“I’m expecting a lot out of that nucleus of people,” Clark said. But, he’s depending mostly on the nine returning lettermen.

Seniors Pat Egan and Andy Flodin are expected to make great strides as they wade through their final seasons at NIU. Both Egan and Flodin started off well at the annual intrasquad meet as the two turned in top times. Normally, the juniors and seniors don’t perform the best at the intrasquad because the underclassmen are the ones that have something to prove.

“They are two of the premiere performers,” Clark said. “At the intrasquad, they proved it anyhow.”

The depth of the team is definitely a strong point for the Huskies. The other seven returning lettermen include Randy Faherty, diver Bryan Hanania, Todd Klumb, Art Sanchez, Steve Sanders, Curt Streder and Bill Zolna.

Coach Clark does feel the balance of the team is better this year, too.

“Last year, we’d have one or two strong events, a gap, some more strong events. This year, I think we have strong people through everything,” he said.

The coach feels especially confident with his team in the butterfly, breaststroke, middle distance and diving.

With the added depth and balance, Clark believes this team has the possibilities to come close to that 1988-89 record, but with this year’s tougher schedule, it will be difficult.

“We dropped a couple of the easy teams and added Missouri,” Clark said. “Being close to 14-2 would be amazing considering the schedule. There’s no one team on our schedule that we don’t have a shot at.”

The schedule starts today with the Ramblers, against whom Clark feels the depth of his team will take over.

“Loyola’s got three or four pretty good swimmers,” Clark said. “It’s our first meet and their first meet—our depth should show against Loyola.”

Clark’s goal for the season is to be one of the top three teams in the Midwest region and in the Association of Mid-Continent Universities.

“We’re about as ready as we can be,” Clark said. “I hope we can set a half a dozen school records by the middle of December and most of the rest by March.”