March 21, 2001
Evanston, Ill. - Head coach Jimmy Tierney began the 2000-01 season with different expectations than in the past. With the departure of five All-Americans, Tierney had in front of him one of the youngest and smallest squads in his coaching tenure.
"We spent a lot of time this season teaching and laying the groundwork for success over the next few years," he said.
Even with that said, NU entered the season ranked 19th in the nation and opened competition with a first-place win at their own relay meet. The Wildcats showed the swimming world they may be young, but don't count them out.
After struggling through a sub-par regular season, the `Cats got a glimpse of the future with an upset of 14th-ranked Michigan in their last dual before the postseason. NU placed first in the final relay of the day to pull off the 154-146 victory. The `Cats headed into the Big Ten Championships with confidence and momentum.
At the Big Ten meet NU knew it would have a difficult time competing with the conference powerhouses because of their smaller numbers. After two days of competition, NU was in sixth place and without an individual champion. A Tierney team had never finished below fourth place at Big Tens, and within a 20-minute timespan the team ensured it would not be the one to break the streak. In the first event of the evening finals, freshman Vicky West (Abington, Pa./Abington Senior) erased a four-year-old school mark in the 1650-yard freestyle with a first-place time of 16:17.20. It was only the third time in West's career that she had swam the mile. Next in the pool was two-time reigning 200 backstroke champion senior Tashy Bohm (Long Valley, N.J./West Morris Central).
According to coach Tierney, "Tashy took over the race from the start and left no doubt as to who was about to win the race." In the process of winning her third title, Bohm also set a new school mark in the event (1:57.61). With these two victories and a career weekend from Rachel Johnson (Champaign, Ill./Centennial), NU catapulted to a fourth-place finish.
Five swimmers would see their season extended one more weekend as Bohm, Johnson, West, Susie Sample (LaGrange, Ill./Lyons Township) and Erica Rose (Cleveland, Ohio/Hawken School) qualified for the NCAA Championships on Long Island, N.Y. The Wildcats scored 16 points, finishing 35th. West was NU's top placer with an 11th-place finish in the 1650 free, but the highlight was another record-breaking performance from Bohm in her last meet as a Wildcat. Bohm broke the school 200 backstroke record for the third time this season during the preliminary race (1:57.34), and went on to place 12th in the evening final. All five qualifiers earned Honorable Mention All-America in at least one event (Bohm 200 back and 800 free relay, West 1650 freestyle and 800 free relay, Rose 1650 freestyle, Sample 800 freestyle relay, Johnson 800 free relay).
"Even though we will greatly miss Tashy next year at the Championships, we come back stronger with a group convinced that Northwestern will return to prominence among the nation's elite," said Tierney.