Northwestern University Athletics
Northwestern
TYR Invitational
Northwestern in Second After Day One at TYR Invitational
11/20/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Swimming and Diving
Nov. 20, 2009
EVANSTON, Ill. -- Northwestern is in second place in the six-team field at the TYR Invitational after Friday's action, the first of three days in the meet hosted by the Wildcats at the Norris Aquatics Center.
Michigan State leads after day one with 265 points, 43 points better than Northwestern (222) in second. Kenyon is third with 171 points, Cleveland State is fourth with 155, a split squad from Michigan is fifth with 153 and Illinois-Chicago is sixth with 141 points.
The 30-time defending NCAA Division III champion Kenyon Lords won the 200 free relay to begin Friday night's finals session with Northwestern's team of Sean Mathews (St. Louis, Mo./Lafayette), Brian Kerr (East Grand Rapids, Mich./East Grand Rapids), Alex Tyler (Birmingham, Mich./Birmingham Groves) and Alex Ratajczyk (Parlin, N.J./Sayreville War Memorial) taking second in 1:22.85.
In the first individual event, Nathan Butler (Cincinnati, Ohio/Turpin) was the Wildcats' top finisher with a seventh-place effort in the championship heat, turning in a 26.32. He was the lone Wildcat in the scoring finals of the event.
Peter Park (Princeton, N.J./Peddie School) punctuated his first place in the 500 free with a jubilant finger point after leading nearly start to finish to touch the wall in 4:28.70. The time shaved nearly four full seconds off his lifetime best. Teammate Charlie Rimkus (Tustin, Calif./Beckman) came in third in the `A' final with a season-best time of 4:32.38. The 1-3 finished vaulted NU from fifth place entering the event into third.
In the non-scoring bonus final of the 500 free, John Frutiger (Alma, Mich./Alma), Tony Mattar (Lake Orion, Mich./Lake Orion) and Jan Hanulik (Cavisov, Czech Republic/Sportovni Gymnazium) swept the top three spots.
Tyler blasted the field in the 200 IM by more than three seconds to win in NCAA `B' provisional qualifying fashion with a 1:48.05. He was followed by teammates Mathews in third with a 1:51.85, Rimkus in fifth with a 1:53.34 and Park in sixth with a 1:54.78.
Frutiger won the consolation final with a 1:55.18, while Hanulik (13th) and Butler (16th) also scored points in the `B' heat for NU. The performance vaulted the 'Cats into second in the team standings, 12 points behind leader Michigan State.
Mathews was the top NU scorer in the 50 free, placing eighth in the championship heat with a 22.39 after turning a 21.14 in the prelims. Earlier in the meet, Mathews swam a 20.54 leadoff for the second-place 200 free relay. Kerr took 14th-place points with a sixth-place effort in the consolation final. Those two represented NU's only competitors in the Friday finals of the 50 free.
Northwestern closed out the day Friday with a third-place finish in the 400 medley relay, getting a 3:23.85 from Varun Shivakumar (Hoffman Estates, Ill./Fremd), Tyler, Mathews and Kerr.
In day one diving action, Kalister Harmon (Olympia, Wash./Capital) earned second-place points with a score of 264.85 on the 1-meter board.
Day two of the TYR Invitational continues tomorrow, Saturday, Nov. 21, with preliminary heats at 10 a.m. and finals at 5 p.m.
