Halasz hopes to extend streak

Freshman Murph Halasz has competed in the 200-yard butterfly nine times so far this season. He's won all of them. Now, with the Big Ten championships beginning on Friday, Halasz hopes he can not only extend that streak, but also write himself into the record books by unseating Olympian Mark Spitz for the best time in school history.\n"My Dad sent me an article from Time about the 50 top people from the past decade and Mark Spitz was one of them," Halasz said. "He sent me the picture of Mark Spitz and he wrote 1:46.89, which is his time. I have that on my wall." \nHalasz swims the 200-yard butterfly on Saturday in the penultimate swimming event of Big Tens, his best time of the year 11 hundredths of a second away from Spitz. It has been a combination of work ethic, rigorous practice and health management that has Halasz, a native of Richmond, Va., in position to break such a storied record. \nHalasz began swimming at age six during the summer and then expanded to swimming throughout the year by the sixth grade when he joined NOVA, a Virginia based club swim team, under the coaching of Geoff Brown. \n"He pushed me," Halasz said. "He got me to figure out what I wanted from the sport. He made me set my goals and made me understand what I needed to do to get faster."\nUnder Brown, Halasz did just that. He was a participant in the 2000 Olympic trials in the 200-fly and won the 200-fly Virginia short course state championship event. \nWhen it came time to choose a college, Halasz came to IU on a recruiting trip and knew it was the place for him.\n "(Assistant coach) Greg (Ruminski) just sold the school to me," Halasz said. "It's a beautiful campus, I had a great time on my recruiting trip. (Teammates) Dave Schulze and Anderson Brooks were two of the guys that were here and I just clicked with them. It was a lot of fun and I really wanted to come here."\nOnce at IU, Halasz quickly developed into an important and respected member of the team. \n"As a person, he is always very bubbly and live," freshman teammate and roommate Richard Bryant said. "He'll always pick you up if you're having a bad day. As a swimmer he is absolutely awesome -- he swims just like a dolphin. He never runs out of energy."\nA biochemistry major, Halasz enjoys reading, playing chess and working on chemistry when not in the pool. \nHalasz attributes his success so far to his work ethic, as well as his practice regimen. He also credits the attention he pays to taking care of his body and doing seemingly little things that garner great results in the pool, such as getting eight hours of sleep every night. In high school, Halasz would do 120 pull-ups at a time, strengthening, but also tiring his arms and forcing him to develop his kicking while swimming. \n"That was really what made me start swimming well," Halasz said. "I couldn't use my arms as well the next day at practice, so I had to kick and that's why my kicking got so much better."\nThe results are evident in Halasz' swimming throughout the course of the season. In addition to the 200-yard fly, Halasz also holds season best times in the 100-yard fly, 200-yard individual medley and the 200 and 400-yard medley relays.\n"He performs exceptionally, week after week, day after day," head coach Kris Kirchner said. "He comes into practice the same guy every day, he is very consistent and has a great work ethic and attitude. He's had a great season." \nAs for Spitz's record, Halasz said breaking it would be nice if only to stop people from bugging him about it. He aims for it to be broken this weekend.\n"Saturday," Halasz said. "It should. I should probably break 1:46"