Northwestern
NCAA Championships
Matt Grevers Wins 100 Back at NCAA Championships
3/25/2005 12:00:00 AM | Men's Swimming and Diving
March 25, 2005
MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. -- The finals of day two's NCAA Championships Friday evening could not have gone much better for No. 15 Northwestern. Not only have the Wildcats amassed 137 points -- eclipsing last year's NCAA total -- but they can now boast something they have been unable to for the last 47 years: an NCAA champion resides in Evanston.
Rather than resting on his All-America status, sophomore Matt Grevers (Lake Forest, Ill./Lake Forest) swam the race of his life in the 100 backstroke final to edge Florida's Olympian Ryan Lochte by .03 seconds to win the NCAA championship in the event. Grevers holds a six-inch height advantage over Lochte, and those six inches proved to be the difference in the most thrilling race of the evening.
Grevers swam a career-best time of 45.62 to seize the victory.
"Usually when racing you do not want to look at your opponent because it messes up your stroke," Grevers said. "Tonight, I was looking right at him because I did not want him to get away."
Grevers is Northwestern's first men's swimming NCAA champion since Dave Pemberton won the 200 backstroke in 1958. He becomes the Wildcats' first individual NCAA champion in any sport since Luke Donald captured the men's golf title in 1999.
Grevers' win capped off another amazing day for the 'Cats at these Championships. The 'Cats scored 68 points today, one less than yesterday. Today's swims are even more impressive than yesterday's when considering the Wildcats swam only one relay today compared to two Thursday. Relays are worth double the points of individual events.
Right before Grevers' victory, Mike Alexandrov (Champaign, Ill./Centennial) posted Northwestern's first top-three finish in 47 years as well. Alexandrov finished the 100 breast with a time of 52.95, earning himself a third-place finish and All-America status.
"As a coach, what you want to see is guys put themselves in a position to win." Northwestern Head Coach Bob Groseth said, "Mike did that tonight with the best time in school history."
The first race of this evening's finals, the 200 medley relay, was eerily similar to the final race of last evening, the 400 medley relay. The 'Cats found themselves in the lead with only the freestyle leg to go, but they could not hold off the field and finished fifth with a time of 1:25.97.
The quartet of Grevers, Alexandrov, Kyle Bubolz (Waukesha, Wis./Waukesha North) and David Kormushoff (Hinsdale, Ill./Hinsdale Central) earned All-America honors when they finished the relay with a school-record time.
Northwestern's other points for the evening came from Bubolz, who placed 13th in the 100 butterfly with a time of 47.20. Bubolz's swim earned him honorable mention All-America honors and was .03 seconds faster than his prelim time.
The Wildcats' 137 points put them in eighth place, 26 points behind Texas and eight points ahead of Minnesota. Southern Cal is in 10th place, 14 points behind the 'Cats.
"I told the team that last year we scored 112 points and that was good enough for 11th," Groseth said. "If we want to finish in the top 10 this year we need to have a good day tomorrow and finish the meet with at least 180 points."
The 'Cats will look to meet Groseth's goal tomorrow when the final day of the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships begins with the preliminaries at noon Saturday. Brian Davis (Issaquah, Wis./Issaquah) will lead the charge by swimming the 1650 freestyle, followed by Grevers and Bubolz in the 100 freestyle, Alexandrov in the 200 breaststroke and the 400 freestyle relay team finishing off this year's Championships for Northwestern.
For results and complete Championships coverage, visit the Division I NCAA Championships Web site.
Players Mentioned
