March 29, 2005
NCAA Championships Success
Our winter teams enjoyed great success in the NCAA Championships, highlighted by the performance of our men's swimming team in Minneapolis this past weekend. The men's swimming team sent six swimmers to the NCAA Championships and finished eighth as a team. Sophomore Matt Grevers performed great all weekend and earned Northwestern's first national swimming championship since 1958 by winning the 100-yard backstroke. Fellow sophomore Michael Alexandrov almost won a championship himself by finishing second in the 200-yard breaststroke. As a team, our swimmers earned a total of 23 All-America honors.
Head coach Bob Groseth, who was previously named Big Ten Coach of the Year, was named Co-Coach of the NCAA Championships. Congratulations to Bob and his swimmers on a great year.
The wrestling team finished 14th in the NCAA Championships, and freshman Jake Herbert finished third, becoming our first All-American since 2000. Our women's fencing team finished eighth at the NCAA Championships. Senior Julia Foldi and sophomore Jessica Florendo both earned All-America honors. Julia capped off her outstanding career by becoming Northwestern's first four-time All-American. Two of our women's swimmers, senior Christy Olin and freshman Andrea Hupman, earned honorable mention All-America honors at the NCAA Championships.
No. 1. Ranking
Our athletic department received some great news last week when our women's lacrosse team moved to the top of the International Women's Lacrosse Coaches Association poll. This is really a remarkable achievement for this team, especially considering they are only playing in their fourth season of varsity competition. It is the first time that a school outside of the Eastern Time Zone has been ranked first. This is the first Northwestern team to be ranked No. 1 since the men's golf team was ranked first in 2000, and it is the first time a Northwestern women's team has been ranked first since the field hockey team was atop the polls for five weeks in 1994. Congratulations to head coach Kelly Amonte Hiller and her team on the great success they have enjoyed over the last couple of years and best of luck the rest of the season.
ESPN Town Hall Meeting
Earlier this month Northwestern hosted a Town Hall Meeting that was televised nationally on ESPN. The topic for the discussion was whether student-athletes should be paid. It was a lively discussion and the panelists included NCAA President Myles Brand and former Georgetown University men's basketball coach and current TNT commentator John Thompson. Click here (requires registration) for a Chicago Tribune story written by Northwestern alumnus Teddy Greenstein on the discussion.