Achievements of the Year: teDuits earns NCAA individual title
June 28, 2013 | General News
June 28, 2013
• Varsity Magazine: Local Motion | teDuits wins NCAA title 
Over the course of two weeks, UW Athletics will look back on the Badgers' biggest accomplishments during the 2012-13 season.
MADISON, Wis. -- On March 30, 2013, head coach Whitney Hite was present for a celebration that ensued just twice during the 109-year history of UW men's swimming.
Madison native"Drew teDuits was the cause of this celebration, as the sophomore had done something no Wisconsin male swimmer had done in 54 years: win a national title.
teDuits' dominant performance in the 200-yard backstroke put him in elite company. Not only was he just the third Badgers' swimmer to earn a national title, but his time of 1:38.27 was also the third-fastest swim ever in NCAA history.
"I just kind of went out there and let my training take over," teDuits said. "I didn't really think about it at all. I just wanted to do what I trained to do."
The NCAA first-team All-American previously set the school record in the 200-yard backstroke just a month prior to the NCAA championships, but his NCAA title-clinching swim erased that record by over a second and a half.
Wisconsin's last individual NCAA champion was Fred Westphal. The title came so many years ago that when Westphal won the 1959 title in the 50-yard freestyle, he did so after a season's-worth of training at the pool in the old Armory and Gymnasium on Langdon Street. The only other individual crown came before Memorial Union was completed on campus - a 1927 title in the 200-yard breaststroke for Winston Kratz.
"We're moving in the right direction," Hite said. "We just hope it won't take another fifty-some years to get another title. It's a process and I couldn't be more proud of the guys on the team."
teDuits' title went a long way in helping the Badgers earn 84 points and a 13th-place finish at the NCAA championships, the most since the team scored 105 in 2003.
