Northwestern Cruises to Championship at 2010 TYR Invitational

11/21/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Swimming and Diving

Nov. 21, 2010

Results

EVANSTON, Ill. -- Northwestern earned three more NCAA `B' consideration times Sunday at the TYR Invitational in the Norris Aquatics Center, bringing its three-day total during the meet to seven while cruising to a dominating team victory in the five-team field.

The Wildcats compiled 1,155 points in the meet. Cleveland State took second with 807 points, NCAA Division III superpower Kenyon was third with 665.5 points, UIC took fourth with 505 points and North Dakota was fifth with 459.5 points.

Individually, Northwestern swimmers took each of the top six spots for high individual scorer, led by Sean Mathews' 93 points. Charlie Rimkus was right on his heels with 91 points.

Following this weekend's TYR Invitational, several Wildcats have placed themselves firmly in the top-10 in the nation in individual events according to Collegeswimming.com's most recent top times listings. Mathews is up there in the 200 fly, both Alex Tyler and Rimkus are top-5 in the 400 IM and Tyler also is top-5 in the 200 IM.

Northwestern now is off from collegiate competition until its winter training trip at the conclusion of fall quarter.

Preliminary portion of Sunday's action:

Northwestern began the day by earning one scoring lane in each of the championship and consolation finals of the 50 fly. Mathews swam a 22.97 to take third overall following the morning session while Nathan Butler was 11th overall with a 23.74. Ross McAuliffe was the top entrant to the bonus final after a morning time of 24.25 while Brien Gerber (24.77) and Alex Ratajczyk (24.86) took 22nd and 23rd, respectively, to also earn bonu final lanes.

Varun Shivakumar cruised to an easy first-place finish during the prelims of the 200 back, winning by more than three full seconds with a 1:51.29. Fellow Wildcats Jan Hanulik (1:55.93) and Jake Vogel (1:56.19) were fast enough to claim the final two championship heat spots by finishing seventh and eighth, respectively. Vogel's time was .03 of a second ahead of the ninth-place qualifier.

Daniel Salovesh qualified 16th overall to take the last consolation final slot with a 2:02.56 in the 200 back.

Dominik Cubelic took third overall in the 100 free qualifying with a 46.06 while Ratajczyk's 46.43 was good for fifth to give NU two championship heat entrants. McAuliffe (11th overall; 47.27) and John Frutiger (13th overall; 47.40) earned consolation final berths while Matt Wilcox was just .05 of second shy of joining that pair with a 17th-place overall time of 47.68.

Both Tyler and Nathan Butler eased into the 200 breast `A' heat by finishing fourth and fifth, respectively. Tyler had a 2:09.27 while Butler went 2:09.93. NU's two other entries in the event swam their way into the consolation final, with Brien Gerber finishing ninth in 2:13.86 and Tim Smith coming in 14th in 2:22.21.

The 50 back only had 11 total entries from among the entire field, with six of them coming from Northwestern. Cubelic led the way with a first-place 23.64 to lead a contingent of Vogel, Shivakumar and Mac Anthony into the `A' final while Wilcox and Chase Stephens were ninth and 10th, respectively, to earn consolation final lanes.

Rimkus, Peter Park Mathews were 3-4-5 in the prelims of the 200 fly while Tony Mattar (10th) and Tyler (14th) earned consolation final berths. Hanulik (18th) and Frutiger (24th) received second-swim opportunities in the bonus heat after their morning times.

Finals portion of Sunday's action:

During the morning preliminary heats, the divers took to the Norris Aquatics Center 5-meter platform to compete in their third event of the TYR Invitational. Tanner Nemkov won the competition for Northwestern with a 233.85.

Mathews raced to the finish to win the 50 fly by .05 of second in 22.36, cutting .61 of a second from his morning effort. McAuliffe, who earned a consolation final spot after another competitor scratch, took advantage to move all the way up to 10th with a 23.62. Butler ended up 12th with a 23.74. In the bonus final, Ratajczyk cut more than a full second from his prelim time -- impressive for a 50-yard event -- to win the heat and take 17th overall in 23.81. Gerber swam a 24.38 to end up 19th.

Shivakumar dropped more than three seconds from his seed time to easily win the 200 back by 4.42 seconds with a season-best 1:48.07 over teammate Hanulik's second-place 1:52.49, which represented a nearly 3.5 second cut and a rise from seventh after the prelims. Also jumping post-prelims was Vogel, who moved from eighth to fourth with a 1:53.48. Salovesh moved from the 16th place qualifier in the consolation final to 12th overall with a 1:58.35, going more than four seconds faster in the afternoon than he did in the morning.

Cubelic was second in the 100 free with a 45.39 while Ratajczyk took fourth in 46.05, but the big swim came from McAuliffe in the consolation final. The freshman cut a full second to win the heat in 46.23. Frutiger placed 11th overall with a 47.52 while Wilcox held on to his 17th-place seed with a 46.95 win in the bonus heat.

In the men's 1,650 free, Rimkus earned an NCAA `B' consideration time of 15:30.95, but came in second in the race to a Cleveland State swimmer. Rimkus was the lone NU entry in the event.

Tyler raced to a 3.84-second win in the 200 breast with a 2:02.14, dropping a whopping 7.13 seconds from his prelim time. Butler was fourth in 2:07.66 while Gerber, who earned his way into the `A' heat after a scratch, took eighth in 2:13.74. Smith was 13th overall after cutting nearly three seconds from morning to afternoon with a 2:19.42.

Cubelic led a 1-2-3 sweep of the 50 back for Northwestern with a 23.23 for a .75 of a second win over teammate Vogel's 23.98. Shivakumar came in third with a 24.22 after out-touching two competitors for the spot by .02 and .08 of a second. Wilcox won the consolation final in 26.10, .77 of a second faster than his morning swim, while Stephens was 10th in 26.29 -- a 1.22 second drop in time from his prelim swim.

Mathews blazed to a season-best and NCAA `B' cut time of 1:46.78 to win the 200 fly by nearly four seconds over his nearest collegiate competition, which was teammate Park in third with a 1:50.63. After swimming the mile just minutes earlier, Rimkus came in eighth with a 1:53.30.

Tyler and Mattar finished 1-2 in the consolation final with times of 1:51.18 and 1:51.33, respectively, besting the nearest competition by 2.63 seconds. Hanulik made it three wins in three heats in the event for NU with a 1:53.89 to take the bonus final by 3.93 seconds.

In the final 400 free relay, Northwestern's team of Ratajczyk, Cubelic, McAuliffe and Tyler swam to an easy victory in NCAA `B' style with a season-best time of 3:00.87.

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