Feb. 26, 2004
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- Northwestern freshman Matt Grevers (Lake Forest, Ill./Lake Forest) erased the Big Ten Championship meet record in the 50-yard freestyle in convincing fashion Thursday afternoon.
Grevers recorded the second-best 50 time (19.44) in Big Ten history and finished first in the prelims -- nearly four-tenths of a second faster than Minnesota's Terry Silkaitis. The Big Ten record is 19.36, held by Michigan's Brent Lang. The previous meet record was 19.60, set in 2000 by Minnesota's Ricardo Dornelas.
"It was an impressive performance, especially by a freshman in his first Big Ten event," said NU coach Bob Groseth. "Let's hope he breaks another record tonight." The all-time NCAA record is 19.08.
In the 200-yard individual medley, senior Tony Swanson (Coon Rapids, Minn./Coon Rapids) won the prelims with a time of 1:46.00, an NCAA "A" qualifying time. Swanson set the Big Ten meet record in 2002, with a time of 1:45.64. Also joining Swanson in the top eight were freshman Mike Alexandrov (Champaign, Ill./Centennial) and senior Mark Hamming (Lake Forest, Ill./Lake Forest). Alexandrov was fifth (1:47.25) while Hamming was seventh (1:47.96).
One other event -- the 500-yard freestyle -- held its preliminaries Thursday. Sophomore Brian Davis (Issaquah, Wash./Issaquah) was NU's top finisher, placing fifth with a school-record and NCAA "B" time of 4:22.69.
In all, Northwestern swimmers established 10 personal bests and set a pair of school records through the first three preliminary events.
The finals for these three events, along with the 200-yard free and 400-yard medley relays, begin at 7 p.m. Diving preliminaries began this afternoon for the one-meter board.
For the latest results, live scoring and other meet information, visit Big Ten Men's Swimming and Diving Championships or Purdue Men's Swimming and Diving.