Feb. 11, 2004
National Success
Many of our winter and spring teams are enjoying great success this year. As I write this column, four of our teams are ranked in the top 25 nationally. Our women's fencing team is ranked fifth in the country, and recently beat Ohio State, the second-ranked team.
Bob Groseth may have his best swimming and diving team ever. They are currently ranked 15th and narrowly lost a thrilling meet to No. 9 Michigan recently. The meet came right down to the end, and our team broke five pool records. Look for the team to have great showings at the Big Ten and NCAA championships. They have a great combination of youth (led by record-setting freshman Matt Grevers) and senior leadership (keyed by Tony Swanson). Both athletes have been named Big Ten Swimmer of the Week recently.
Our women's tennis team is off to a great start. They are currently ranked seventh in the country, with impressive wins over William & Mary and Kentucky. The team narrowly lost a match this past weekend to No. 2 Georgia. The future looks very bright for Claire Pollard's women's tennis team, as they recently signed the number one-ranked high school player in the country.
Our men's golf team is currently ranked 22nd in the county. Led by two-time honorable mention All-America Tom Johnson, the team has good depth, and should be able to maintain a national rank. This week, the team placed 12th in a tournament featuring several of the nation's top teams.
In addition, two of our other teams are ranked, although out of the top 25. The women's golf team is ranked 35th and the men's tennis team is rated as the 37th-best squad. Also, although our men's basketball team is not ranked, they've had two exciting wins at home over nationally ranked opponents -- Illinois (No. 22 at the time) and last weekend against No. 11 Wisconsin. Finally, the softball team opened up its season with two wins over No. 20 Arizona State, to go 4-1 in the opening weekend of play.
It is a real tribute to our coaches and student athletes that our teams are enjoying this type of national success. When you combine this type of success with graduation rates that are annually among the nation's leaders, you have an athletic program that is a great source of pride for everyone associated with Northwestern.
Coaching Milestones
Three of our coaches reached coaching milestones in the last two weeks. Women's fencing coach Laurie Schiller recorded his 800th career win, a remarkable accomplishment. Wrestling coach Tim Cysewski recorded his 100th win, while men's tennis coach Paul Torricelli notched his 300th win. Interestingly, Paul's 300th win came against Drake and first year head coach Jay Udwadia, Paul's former assistant who left Northwestern to take the Drake job. Paul denied Jay his first career win in posting his 300th win. Congratulations to all three coaches for these great achievements.