16 Quotes by Nort Thornton

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.

Ricky was great. He was in third place at the last turn and just turned it on.

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.

We may not have won, but we had the highest number of improved performances this week.

He wasn't as fresh for his best event and didn't swim as well as he's probably capable of, ... because he chose to be a team player rather than go with his best event. We told him this year we're going to try and help him out and try to get him in his best event.

I think we are right on target and I think we will do really well in the championships.

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.

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.

We know the level of competition (we will face) and we're optimistic at this point.