 "Photo: Chris Dorwart")
Yet again, the Nebraska swimming program finds itself on the bottom of the Big 12 Conference scrap heap.
The Huskers finished last out of six teams at this weekend’s league championship. Nebra ska’s 261 points were 77 behind fifth-place Iowa State, and 741 behind champion Texas A&M.
This year’s team was unquestionably young, with 21 freshmen and sophomores between the swimming and diving team. But it remains to be seen if the program can take the next step to get out of the conference’s cellar.
“We’re very excited about this year’s team,” assistant coach Doug Humphrey said before the season began. “The potential of this team is enormous. It’s not like we can’t win big this year, but this is definitely a team that will get better over time.”
He was right. After an early season defeat to Illinois at the Devaney Natatorium, Nebraska rallied to assert home-pool dominance, finishing first in all five meets and competitions afterward, including a win over Iowa State, its only Big 12 win on the season.
“The talent we have on this team is very good,” Humphrey said. “Now that the young girls have more experience, road meets should be easier in the future. We have nowhere to go but up.”
Perhaps the best example of the talent Humphrey referred to is senior Kaitlin Arntz, who qualified for NCAA competitions this year after a strong performance in the 200-meter breaststroke at the Big 12 Championships.
“I was hoping to do well, but I didn’t think I would qualify for nationals,” Arntz said. “I am very exciting to compete at nationals and represent the university there.”
While Arntz may be surprised at her success, other members of the team are not.
“To see her accomplish something the team knew she could for four years was terrific,” NU’s Mariah Hutchinson said. “As hard as she worked, she definitely deserved her accomplishment.”
But accomplishments in general were a rare sight for the Husker swim team. Still, the team saw a large contribution from what Humphrey called “one of our best recruiting classes.” While others might focus on Nebraska’s last-place finish, these young swimmers are looking forw ard to next year.
“Next year, I’ll be an even better swimmer,” NU freshman Ellan Dufour said. “For me, it was a difficult transition to university life. I take some of the blame for our bad finish at the Big 12 Championship, but taking sixth doesn’t take away from our performance. There are so many swimmers with so much talent.”
These freshmen will be bolstered with another recruiting class Humphrey calls “maybe even as good as this class.” Perhaps as vital to the team’s success next year will be the improvement of the diving team, which struggled this year while fighting youth and injury issues.
“We did really well for having such a young team,” NU’s Amy Herman said. “We didn’t know how hard it was going to be. I think we’ve improved a lot, and we will continue to improve.”
While improvement is the talking point of the team right now, there are reasons beyond this year’s showing at the Big 12 Championships to feel uneasy about high expectations.
Nebraska has placed third or higher in an all-Big 12 event just once since 2001. They haven’t beaten either Kansas or Missouri in five years. They lose both Arntz and Hutchinson, their two top performers this season. The team has finished last the past three years.
But not all of the problems can be placed on the team or coaches, according to Arntz.
“Our training level and coaching is excellent,” Arntz said. “We have to focus on recruiting more talent. Nebraska isn’t on a coast. It doesn’t have all the facilities some places have. We need strong fan support to make this a winning program.”
Nebraska was once a winning program, having won five Big 12 championships from 1994 to 1999. And Arntz’s success shows that team could reach that level again, if the young talent on the team continues to p rogress.
From Humphrey to Hutchinson to Arntz, the message was the same: “There’s nowhere to go but up.”
seanwhalen
@dailynebraskan.com
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