Northwestern
NCAA Championships
Matt Grevers Defends NCAA 100 Back Championship
3/24/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Swimming and Diving
March 24, 2006
ATLANTA -- Matt Grevers (Lake Forest, Ill./Lake Forest) defended his NCAA Championship in the 100 back Friday night, turning in a 45.93 in the finals to defeat Auburn's Doug Van Wie by .29 seconds.
The junior swam a 22.24 first 50, and never trailed in the race. Grevers is the Wildcats' first two-time champion since Bill Heusner won the 1,500 free in 1948 and 1949. Grevers defeated Florida Olympian Ryan Lochte in 2005 with a school record 45.62 to earn his first 100 back NCAA title.
"It wasn't pretty, but I got it done I guess," said Grevers. "I've been going faster times, especially at the beginning of the meet, so I thought I would go a little faster, but that really doesn't matter, because I got the win and that's what I really wanted."
Grevers picked up two more All-America honors Friday night, as did classmate Mike Alexandrov (Champaign, Ill./Centennial) and sophomore Kyle Bubolz (Waukesha, Wis./Waukesha North). Senior Ben Dexter (Indianapolis, Ind./Roncalli) added one more as the anchor of the 200 medley relay.
Grevers now has five All-America accolades in 2006 and 19 for his career. Alexandrov has earned four All-America honors at this meet and 18 in his career. Bubolz has four in 2006 and nine in his two years at Northwestern, while Dexter has three this year and six overall.
Grevers and Alexandrov, as just juniors, are the most decorated All-Americans in Northwestern history.
As a team, Northwestern remains in eighth place after day two with 133.5 points, 1.5 points ahead of ninth-place Michigan and 23.5 points behind seventh-place USC. Arizona leads the meet with 336.5 points.
Grevers, Alexandrov, Bubolz and Dexter led off Friday's action with a first-place finish during the prelims of the 200 medley relay, swimming a school-record 1:25.75. The quartet then took fourth in the finals, lowering their Northwestern record to 1:25.72.
In Northwestern's first individual event of Friday, Bubolz broke the school record with a 46.36 in the prelims of the 100 fly. The sophomore then came back to turn in a 46.43 and finish in fifth place.
In the 200 free, freshman Eric Nilsson (Weston, Mass./Weston) again turned in a great performance at his first NCAA Championships. He cut more than a second off his personal best time, swimming a 1:36.33 to finish 17th overall -- just one spot short of the points.
Alexandrov swam a 53.82 in the 100 breast prelims to qualify for the consolation final, then won that heat to earn nine points for the Wildcats' with a 53.18.
The NCAA Championships conclude tomorrow, Saturday, March 25. For complete results, including live results, link to .
Players Mentioned
