Nov. 23, 2003
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind.- Somebody once said "records were made to be broken." Whoever that person was probably had no idea how closely the Northwestern men's swimming and diving team would take the phrase to heart.
After two days of record-breaking performances at the Purdue Invitational, the Wildcats topped the weekend off by breaking four more Boilermaker pool records Sunday.
Northwestern finished second behind the host Boilermakers, but it should be noted that the Wildcats have not had any divers competing in the meet. Purdue, meanwhile, picked up team points from at least three divers in all three diving events.
Even without the diving points, the Wildcats picked up 691.50 points, more than 100 more than third-place Iowa.
Northwestern started the third day of competition off with a first-place finish from Brian Davis in the 1650 freestyle. Davis, who swam a finals time of 15:41.09, finished four seconds ahead of the next closest swimmer.
Senior Tony Swanson followed Davis' performance with a show-stopping swim of his own in the 200 backstroke. He broke the Purdue pool record and placed first with a time of 1:46.68.
Freshman Matt Grevers continued his assault on the record books in the next event, breaking the pool record in the 100 freestyle with a first-place time of 43.53.
Classmate Mike Alexandrov contributed 17 second-place points in the 200 breaststroke with a time of 1:57.91. Louis Torres finished fifth with a time of 2:02.73.
Senior Mark Hamming joined in on the record-breaking fun, dashing to a first-place finish in the 200 butterfly with a time of 1:46.06. Hamming's times were so fast, he tied the pool record in the preliminary heat earlier in the day.
The 'Cats closed the weekend out with one more record-breaking performance in the 400 freestyle relay in the invitational's final event. The team of Swanson, Grevers, Alexandrov and Shelby Clark combined to swim a pool-best time of 2:58.14.
NU is back in action in two weeks when they head to Auburn, Ala. for the Auburn Invitational.