Northwestern University Athletics
Northwestern Opens Home Slate With Pair of Meets
11/3/2010 12:00:00 AM | Women's Swimming and Diving
Nov. 3, 2010
EVANSTON, Ill. -- Northwestern opens its 2010-11 home season this weekend with a pair of combined men's and women's meets at the Norris Aquatics Center. The Wildcats first host Purdue in a Big Ten showdown at 5 p.m. CT Friday, Nov. 5, before a quad-meet against UIC, UW-Milwaukee and North Dakota at 1 p.m. CT Saturday, Nov. 6.
Northwestern's squads have been off for two weeks since opening the year at Indiana. NU fell in those meets despite some stellar early efforts from individual 'Cat swimmers and divers. Most notably for the women's team, sprinter Taylor Reynolds (St. Louis, Mo./Webster Groves) showed she's poised for a breakout sophomore season while distance freshman Megan Goss (Brentwood, Tenn./Ravenwood) had one of NU's best early-season 1,000 times in recent years. Several other freshmen earned event victories at Indiana despite enduring their first preseason of hard collegiate training.
In addition, upperclassmen Jacquie Godbe (Rapid City, S.D./Stevens), Meghan Cavanaugh (Anchorage, Alaska/East Anchorage) and Alex Kraus (Birmingham, Ala./Vestavia Hills) earned mention from the coaching staff for strong 2010-11 debuts.
On the men's side, Northwestern struggled against Indiana two weeks ago after entering the meet during a tough phase in its early-season training. Head coach Jared Schroeder was pleased with his team's effort and expects better results now that his Wildcats have entered more fully into their speed and power training components.
That being said, senior All-American Alex Tyler (Birmingham, Mich./Birmingham Groves) and sophomore Charlie Rimkus (Tustin, Calif./Beckman) still won a pair of events each while senior Peter Park (Princeton, N.J./Peddie School) turned in a career-best time in the 1,000 free against the Hoosiers.
Though Northwestern did not compete last weekend, NU's distance groups put together a special workout Saturday in honor of U.S. open water swimmer Fran Crippen, who died in October during a 10K World Cup event in the United Arab Emirates. The workout consisted of 12, 1,000-yard sets of alternating freestyle and individual medley strokes for a total of 12,000 yards. The fifth and sixth sets along with the final two sets were at race pace, making for a challenging and appropriate tribute.
View a video of the workout edited by NU men's swimmer Alexander Ratajczyk (Parlin, N.J./Sayreville War Memorial) here.
••••••
Be the first to know what's going on with the 'Cats -- Follow @NU_Sports on Twitter, become a fan of Northwestern Athletics on Facebook! and subscribe to the NU Sports Express e-newsletter to receive the latest news, schedule updates and video and to interact with NU. For more information on following specific Northwestern teams online, visit our Social Media page!
