Jan. 18, 2007
EVANSTON, Ill. -- No. 8 Northwestern takes the momentum it gained from a dominating performance at the Dallas Morning News Swimming and Diving Classic on the road Saturday when it faces No. 16 Notre Dame in South Bend, Ind.
The Wildcats sent their top eight swimmers and a diver to Dallas last weekend, defeating a pair of top-10 ranked foes and setting 10 meet and pool records in the process. Senior Mike Alexandrov (Champaign, Ill./Centennial) was named Most Outstanding Swimmer of the Meet after breaking six meet and pool records, and wiping three former collegiate Swimmers of the Year off the meet record board: Ryan Lochte of Florida in the 200 IM, Mike Barrowman of Michigan in the 200 breast and Jeremy Linn of Tennessee in the 100 breast.
Alexandrov was named Big Ten Swimmer of the Week, while senior Matt Grevers (Lake Forest, Ill./Lake Forest) had a great meet, as well. He also set multiple meet and pool records in addition to a Northwestern school record in the 200 free to earn CollegeSwimming.com and Swimming World Magazine National Collegiate Swimmer of the Week honors.
While the top 'Cats were defeating No. 3 California and No. 10 Florida State in Dallas, the remainder of the squad traveled to Carthage to defeat the Red Men in a dual meet.
The Wildcats enter their final two-week dual-meet push toward the Big Ten Championships with NCAA cut times in every single event save for the 1,650 free. NU already has automatic times from swimmers in the 100 free, 200 free, both backstrokes, both breaststrokes and the 100 fly. The 400 medley relay also already has qualified.
Following the meet at Notre Dame, the Wildcats next weekend will travel to Columbus, Ohio, for dual meets against Big Ten foes Michigan and Ohio State.