March 31, 2003
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EVANSTON, Ill. - Northwestern University has named its Hilton Garden Inn Athletes of the Week for the week of March 24-30. The men's recipient is Kellan O'Connor (Phoenix, Ariz./Brophy Preparatory) of the swimming and diving team, while the female winner is tennis' Cristelle Grier (Surrey, England/Putney).
O'Connor, a senior, completed his outstanding collegiate career by earning a pair of All-America honors at the NCAA Championships in Austin, Texas. O'Connor placed seventh in the 200 butterfly and 15th in the 200 individual medley.
His time of 1:44.06 in the prelims of the 200 fly qualified him for the championship final and broke his own school record in the event by nearly three-tenths of a second. O'Connor finished as the highest-placing senior in the 200 fly. He helped NU to a 26th-place finish at the Championships.
With her win over Purdue's Gretchan Haynor, Grier, a freshman, collected her 17th dual-match win of the season to set a Northwestern record for consecutive wins. The previous record was 16 held most recently by Lia Jackson (2000), in addition to three others.
Grier went 3-0 over the weekend at No. 1 singles. She defeated Texas' Kendra Strohm 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 on Thursday, and then knocked off Illinois' Jennifer McGaffigan and Purdue's Haynor in straight sets over the weekend. Grier is now 17-0 in dual matches this season and 4-0 in Big Ten matches.