Nort Thornton
Nort Thornton
Nort Thornton was the head coach of the California Golden Bears men's swimming and diving team at the University of California, Berkeley from 1974 until his retirement in 2007. His teams have been ranked in the top 10 in the country in national polls 28 out of his 33 seasons. 48 of his athletes have gone on to compete in the Olympic Games, winning 14 gold, 10 silver and 5 bronze medals. Thornton was National Coach of the Year two...
both carries four good hope hoping school start swim win worried
We swam great. That was about as good as we could hope for. Both relays we were worried about. To win the medley was a big one, and then the 800 was a big swim for us to set a school record. It's just one day out of four but it's a good way to start off. We're hoping it carries over.
bit couple gets head last meets resting sluggish start worse
In swimming, when you head into championships, it gets worse before it gets better because when you start resting up, you get a bit sluggish the last couple of meets before it.
enjoy page
Everyone's on the same page and they all enjoy being around each other. They know what they have to do and they do it. For many years I couldn't say that.
ability beginning felt good push team
At the beginning of the year, I felt we were a good team with the ability to be great. I still do. We just need to push a little harder.
best happy
We had a lot of best times and we've got 16 or 18 going to the NCAA-that's about a whole team-and I'm happy about that.
college country currently last swim
We have a lot of motivation. We're currently No. 1 in the country and for some guys, it's the last swim of their (regular season) college careers.
competition level optimistic
We know the level of competition (we will face) and we're optimistic at this point.
last ricky third turn turned
Ricky was great. He was in third place at the last turn and just turned it on.
along meets stops
It's kind of like a funnel. Meets are just stops along the way and everything funnels down to that goal.
believe confidence good matter
It's what you think and how you think-confidence. If you believe you can do it, you can. If you don't, it doesn't matter how good you are, you'll never do it.
best brings falls fired gets relaxed
When he gets going, everyone just kind of falls in (rhythm) with him and he just brings out the best in people. Being as relaxed as he is, I didn't think he'd get as fired up as he does for competitions.
best determined fourth meet people points third
(To win) we need to make our best times, but this meet will also be determined a lot by the people who get second, third and fourth because that's more points that we can take away from them.
target
I think we are right on target and I think we will do really well in the championships.
highest improved number
We may not have won, but we had the highest number of improved performances this week.