Northwestern University Athletics
Wildcats Land Three in Saturday Championship Finals
2/26/2011 12:00:00 AM | Men's Swimming and Diving
Feb. 26, 2011
2011 Big Ten Championships Website
MINNEAPOLIS -- Northwestern had another strong morning Saturday at the Big Ten Championships, landing three Wildcats in championship finals and one more in a consolation heat on the final day of competition.
Saturday morning began on a great note for Northwestern thanks to Varun Shivakumar (Hoffman Estates, Ill./Fremd). The 6-4 sophomore swam steady sub-27 second 50-yard splits in the 200 back to shatter his previous career-best in the event by nearly 1.5 full seconds, qualifying eighth overall for the championship final with an NCAA `B' provisional time of 1:44.98.
Jan Hanulik (Cavisov, Czech Republic/Sportovnia Gymnazium) earned a bonus final lane with a career-best 200 back time of 1:48.47, good for 24th overall after the morning heats. Daniel Salovesh (Casa Grande, Ariz./Casa Grande Union) cut more than nine seconds off his seed time and 3.74 seconds off his career-best in the 200 back to place 27th, while fifth-year senior Jake Vogel (Canton, Ill./Canton) also earned a career-best time with a 1:49.26 to take 28th. If there are enough scratches from the bonus heat, Salovesh and Vogel could receive a bonus final swim tonight.
In the 100 free, freshman Dominik Cubelic (Glenview, Ill./Glenbrook North) ended up in a three-way tie for 21st after a morning swim of 44.44, earning a lane in the Saturday evening bonus final.
Senior Alex Tyler (Birmingham, Mich./Birmingham Groves) qualified sixth overall for the championship final of the 200 breast, swimming a career-best and NCAA `B' time of 1:56.84. He earned championship heat appearances in all three of his events at the 2011 Big Ten Championships, finishing sixth in the 200 IM and second in the 400 IM Friday night.
Senior Sean Mathews (St. Louis, Mo./Lafayette) swam a career-best and NCAA `B' provisional time of 1:44.14 to qualify third overall for the championship final of the 200 fly. The career-best marks a phenomenal swim for the senior who took fourth in the Big Ten and qualified for the NCAA Championships in this event a year ago.
Also securing a scoring-final position in the 200 fly was Tony Mattar (Lake Orion, Mich./Lake Orion), whose career-best `B' cut of 1:46.87 to win his preliminary heat held up to slate him 16th overall and give him a consolation final lane on Saturday night.
Platform diving preliminary competition will begin at 1 p.m. CT with the early heats of the 1,650 free getting underway around 3:45 p.m. CT this afternoon. Tonight's finals session will kick off with the final heat of the mile.
The 2011 Big Ten Championships conclude tonight, Saturday, Feb. 26, with the last finals session getting underway at 6:30 p.m. CT. Live results and more Championships information are available at the 2011 Big Ten Championships website.
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