No. 15 Iowa Tips Northwestern, 178-120

1/21/2012 12:00:00 AM | Men's Swimming and Diving

Jan. 21, 2012

Results | Photo Gallery

EVANSTON, Ill. -- In Saturday morning action at the Norris Aquatics Center, No. 15 Iowa defeated Northwestern in a Big Ten dual meet, 178-120.

Northwestern's opening 200 medley relay team of Dominik Cubelic (Glenview, Ill./Glenbrook South), Uula Auren (Helsinki, Finland/Mäkelänrinteen Lukio), Jake Grosser (St. Charles, Ill./St. Charles East) and Matthew Margritier (Leawood, Kan./Rockhurst) swam a time of 1:30.02, finishing second and narrowly missing out on an NCAA `B' provisional qualifying time by .08 of a second.

Iowa took the top three spots in the 1,000 free followed by Chase Stephens (Madison, Wis./Edgewood) in fourth position. Stephens shaved nearly 10 full seconds off of his season-best time in the event to turn in a 9:49.94.

Senior John Frutiger (Alma, Mich./Alma) was fighting for second throughout the 200 free, but a wicked fast 23.91 final 50 split from a Hawkeye put NU's top finisher in the event in third place with a 1:39.95.

Cubelic touched second in the middle of a tightly bunched top three in the 100 back, swimming a 49.11 to lead Northwestern. Mark Ferguson's (Perth, Australia/John XXIII) 51.38 was good for fourth place for the Wildcats.

Auren gave Northwestern its first event victory of the morning with a dominant 2.10 second winning margin in the 100 breast, turning in a time of 56.01. Junior Charlie Rimkus (Tustin, Calif./Beckman) kept the good times rolling for the Wildcats with a 1:48.78 in the 200 fly, winning the race by more than three full seconds.

An Iowa swimmer captured first in the 50 free with an NCAA `B' cut time followed by Grosser in second with a season-best 20.87. Margritier earned fourth-place points with a 20.95. During the first half of the meet, Tanner Nemkov (Littleton, Colo./Heritage) won the 1-meter diving board for Northwestern with a 280.55 followed by Nick Pinkerton (Hudson, Ohio/Hudson) in third with a 256.55.

Iowa swept the top three positions in the 100 free coming out of the halfway point break, then broke the meet open with a top-four sweep of the 200 back.

Auren got Northwestern back on track with another dominating breaststroke performance, winning the 200 breast by nearly two full seconds with a 2:04.19.

The 500 free provided an exciting race from start to finish that really lit up the Norris Center crowd. Rimkus and Iowa's Manuel Belzer swam neck-and-neck in adjacent middle lanes throughout the entire race, never separated by more than a few hundredths of a second. Coming into the final 50 yards, Rimkus held a slight edge and pushed hard enough at the wall to touch out Belzer by .02 of a second with a winning time of 4:28.90. Coming in behind all of the action was Frutiger in third place with a 4:35.14.

Grosser held the lead at the 50 yard mark of the 100 fly, but two Iowa swimmers caught him for a resulting third place time of 50.59. In the 200 IM, Rimkus won his second-straight über-close race, this time pulling away at the end to defeat Iowa's Tyler Lentz with a 1:52.37 compared to Lentz's 1:53.10.

In the final 400 free relay, the team of Margritier, Cubelic, Grosser and Ratajczyk turned in a 3:02.61 to finish in second position.

On the 3-meter diving board during the second half of Saturday's meet, Pinkerton (289.20) and Nemkov (286.25) finished 2-3 for the Wildcats.

Northwestern returns to action January 27-28 in a two-day double dual meet against both Denver and Missouri at the Norris Aquatics Center. Friday's action begins at 5 p.m. CT while Saturday will feature two sessions starting at 10 a.m. CT and 4 p.m. CT.

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