The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/848029
AUGUST 2017 THE WOLVERINE 31 BY JOHN BORTON D istance swimmer Felix Aubock isn't the typical freshman, in many ways. For starters, he's 20 years old, given a different high school sys- tem in his native Vienna, Austria. It's also safe to say there aren't many Wolverines who competed in the Olympics before they rolled into Ann Arbor. Aubock did just that, bat- tling for his country in Rio prior to pulling on the maize and blue. Given the competitor that he is, he wasn't satisfied with his finishes on the big stage: 18th in the 200-me- ter freestyle, 25th in the 400-meter freestyle and 42nd in the 1,500-meter freestyle. But the experience, he ad- mitted, proved invaluable. "The Olympics last year could have gone better for me," Aubock acknowledged. "But the experi- ence was so important. It helped me throughout the whole year. No other meet would be as tough as this meet. "You've got to be less nervous. You just know you've been to the biggest meet there is in swimming. It makes it easier to perform your best in other meets." Aubock performed well enough to swim away with The Wolverine's male rookie of the year distinction for 2016-17. "It's a great honor to get this award," he said. "I was looking at the nominees and there were out- standing performers all over the dif- ferent sports. There were so many other freshmen who could have been a nominee for this award. "It's just impressive, how many freshmen made an impact on so many teams this year." Aubock's impact couldn't be de- nied. He not only earned Big Ten Freshman Swimmer of the Year lau- rels, he became the Big Ten Swimmer of the Year, period. He swam to con- ference championships in both the 500-yard freestyle (4:10.63) and the 1,650-yard freestyle (14:29.25). He went on to nearly nail down a national championship, winding up second in the 1,650-yard freestyle (14:22.88), third in the 500-yard free- style (4:08.95) and 10th in the 200- yard freestyle (1:33.21). The first two of those events earned Aubock All- America distinctions — not bad, for someone with three more cracks at the NCAA title waters. "I had a great year, but I know I can do better," he said. "I want to win at the NCAA Championships. I don't care if it's the 500 or the mile. I got second in the mile this year, and the winner was a senior. "There were two other guys super close to me, but it's possible. I'm not going to be disappointed if I get sec- ond again, but the goal is winning it." He won't lack opportunity, which enhanced the allure of Michigan in the first place. His mother once swam for Wisconsin and knew the lay of the Big Ten land, in terms of the sport. That provided plenty of early in- sight for her distance-dominating son. "My plan was always to swim in the states," Aubock noted. "I was looking for a great distance program. Michigan is the best distance pro- gram in history. The distance records in the 500, the mile, the swimmers who went here like Michael Phelps, Tyler Clary, Chris Thompson, Peter Vanderkaay … you already knew about them when you're swimming in Europe. "I wasn't thinking about not com- ing here. I knew if I wanted to get better … this was the right school to go to. The other side was the aca- demic part, and this was one of the best schools I could go to, along with it being the best distance program. It made the decision really easy." Two days after competing in Rio, Aubock arrived in Ann Arbor. He felt confident, and right at home with a group of fellow newcomers who did everything as a group. While culture shock never seemed like a big problem, morning shock set in quickly. Aubock learned in the early hours all that goes into compet- ing at the highest level. "I thought practice would be hard, but it was harder than I thought," he said. "All the 6 a.m. practices on Monday and Tuesday, they killed me. But you get used to it." He got used to winning as a Wol- verine, recalling the pride rippling through the waters and his own veins in his first-ever Michigan meet, against Louisville. "The first meet competing for your school is something you'll always remember," he said. "It was a really fun meet, because we didn't know the events we were going to swim. "The coaches picked them before the meet. We knew what we were going to swim like 20 minutes before the meet started. It was a really fun experience." Nothing proved as much fun as the Big Ten meet, including the NCAA Championships, Aubock insisted. The sense of competing as a team felt MALE ROOKIE OF THE YEAR FELIX AUBOCK Aubock was named the Big Ten Freshman and Swimmer of the Year after winning a pair of conference titles and posting a trio of top-10 finishes at NCAAs. PHOTO COURTESY MICHIGAN ATHLETIC MEDIA RELATIONS