Jan. 10, 2007
EVANSTON, Ill. -- Eight Wildcat swimmers and one diver will travel to the Dallas Morning News Swimming and Diving Classic this Friday-Saturday, Jan. 12-13, in a star-studded four-team meet including a trio of top-10 ranked squads.
No. 3 California, No. 8 Northwestern and No. 10 Florida State join host SMU for the event, which features the top competitors from each team. Northwestern will send eight swimmers: Mike Alexandrov (Champaign, Ill./Centennial), Bruno Barbic (Zagreb, Croatia/V. Gymnazija), Adam Beckman (Kearney, Neb./Kearney), Kyle Bubolz (Waukesha, Wis./Waukesha North), Jon Ehret (Phoenix, Ariz./Brophy College Prep), John Franklin (Fort Lauderdale, Fla./North Broward Prep), Matt Grevers (Lake Forest, Ill./Lake Forest) and Eric Nilsson (Weston, Mass./Weston). The Wildcats also will send diver Alex Kiaie (Milwaukee, Wis./Nicolet).
The remainder of the squad will swim at 1 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 13, in a dual meet at Carthage in Kenosha, Wis. NOTE: the 1 p.m. start time is a change from the originally publicized 2 p.m. start.
Grevers enters the weekend with top-5 national times in five different events. He is ranked first in the 200 back, third in the 100 free and 100 fly, and fourth in the 100 back and 200 IM. He also is 11th in the 50 free.
Nilsson has top-30 rankings in five events: the 500 free (7th), 1,000 free (11th), 200 free (14th), 200 fly (16th) and the 400 IM (30th). Alexandrov is in the top-20 of three events: the 200 breast (1st), 200 IM (10th) and 400 IM (17th).
Bubolz is ranked seventh in the 100 fly at this point in the season, while Barbic is 20th in the 100 free. Every swimmer the Wildcats are sending to Dallas is ranked in the national top-100 in at least one event save for Ehret.
Junior Daniel Walls (Tucson, Ariz./Sabino) headlines Northwestern's Carthage contingent. He has three nationally ranked times on the season, coming in at No. 42 in the 1,650 free, No. 64 in the 1,000 free and No. 78 in the 500 free.