With a successful weekend at the Natatorium behind them, a pair of Wisconsin swimmers came through with record-breaking times. Both Ivy Martin and Drew TeDuits had personal bests at Saturday’s Big Ten Quad Duals.
Sophomore Martin has been setting records left and right and this past weekend was no exception. Upon beating a Natatorium pool record in the 50 yard freestyle sprint with a time of 22.32 seconds in January, she beat a 15-year-old record in the 100 yard freestyle with a time of 49.75, had five first place finishes and set a new Natatorium record in the 50 yard freestyle at the Big Ten Quad Duals.
Just one week after breaking the pool record for the 50 yard freestyle at the University of Virginia, she beat her previous personal best time by four-tenths of a second and ended up swimming the sixth fastest time in the country for that event. With all these accomplishments for the weekend, she earned the Big Ten Swimmer of the Week, which was announced Tuesday.
While spending some time recovering and resting, Martin said, “this week it was a little easier to get up and get going.”
After having traveled for so long, the excitement of being back in her home pool helped Martin achieve well at this meet. “It is nice to have so many friends and family watching at the meet,” she said.
With yet another successful meet behind her, Martin is excited for the upcoming NCAA competition and hopes to continue her current trend of improvement.
On the men’s side, sophomore TeDuits claimed his first Natatorium record in the 200-yard backstroke with a time of 1:44.88, chopping off four-tenths of a second from the previous record set in 2004.
It has been a dream of his since he was a kid to have his name on the record board hang in his now second home at the pool, he said. TeDuits has been working hard since the beginning of his swimming career to get his name on that board. This past weekend, that dream became a reality.
“Growing up in Madison, competing here, you always look up at the record board,” TeDuits said. “When you’re a kid you never think it is going to happen. It’s awesome to finally have that come true.”
“The whole season has worked up to where we are now,” TeDuits said.
In preparation for this past weekend, TeDuits had envisioned himself breaking the record.
Clearly, his determination paid off.
With that goal now achieved, TeDuits is excited for what’s in store and hopes to see his name on the record board in an additional spot.
After being so close to beating the team record for the 200 yard backstroke at Ohio State, TeDuits hopes to take the team record by the end of the year and maybe pull through with a 100 yard backstroke record as well.
Now his focus is on the Big Ten and NCAA championships down the road as well as helping out the team as much as possible.
Overall, the Wisconsin swim team left the pool in good standing as the men beat Purdue 184-169 but fell to Minnesota 196-157. The women beat Illinois 210-143 and Purdue 200-153, but also fell to the Gophers 210-143. It is their goal to one day soon surpass their westward neighbor.
“We certainly want to be competitive with [Minnesota],” head coach Whitney Hite said.
Hite’s expectations are to be in the top half after the Big Ten championship and have top-15 finishes on both sides after the NCAA championships.
With their record-breaking weekend behind them, the Badgers are expecting even better things as the season continues.
