Northwestern
NCAA Championships
Northwestern in Eighth at NCAA Championships
3/23/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Swimming and Diving
March 23, 2006
ATLANTA -- Northwestern is in eighth place overall after day one of the NCAA Championships, getting a pair of championship heat finishes from two relays and a 10th-place effort from junior Matt Grevers (Lake Forest, Ill./Lake Forest) in the 50 free.
Sophomore Kyle Bubolz (Waukesha, Wis./Waukesha North), Grevers, junior Mike Alexandrov (Champaign, Ill./Centennial) and senior Ben Dexter (Indianapolis, Ind./Roncalli) all earned a pair of All-America honors with the two Wildcat relays, while Grevers picked up an honorable mention All-America accolade with a 10th-place finish in the 50 free.
Northwestern currently has 60.5 points, 2.5 points behind seventh-place USC and 8.5 points ahead of Georgia. Auburn leads the meet with 178.5 points.
The Wildcats are the top Big Ten team after day one, ranking ahead of 10th-place Minnesota and 12th-place Michigan.
Northwestern qualified for the championship heat in its first event of the meet, the 200 free relay. Bubolz, Grevers, Alexandrov and Dexter ended up sixth during prelims of the event with a 1:18.45.
The quartet then came in seventh during the championship finals with a time of 1:19.01.
During preliminary competition in the 500 free, freshman Eric Nilsson (Weston, Mass./Weston) turned in the best time of his young career with a 4:22.47. He finished 22nd overall in the event.
Alexandrov competed in the 200 IM, but finished one spot out of the points during the preliminary heats with a 17th-place time of 1:46.63.
Grevers and Bubolz then took the pool in the 50 free, with Grevers advancing to the consolation finals on the strength of a 19.54, good for 12th. Bubolz ended up 28th with a season-best time of 19.87.
During the evening session, Grevers swam a 19.60 to tie for 10th place and earn 6.5 points for the Wildcats.
Northwestern's No. 1-seeded 400 medley relay finished second during its preliminary swim with a time of 3:08.19. The team of Grevers, Alexandrov, Bubolz and Dexter then cut .09 seconds off that time in the finals to finish in fourth place with a time of 3:08.10.
The NCAA Championships continue tomorrow, Friday, March 24. For complete results, including live results, link to .
Players Mentioned
