Feb. 12, 2007
Northwestern's Big Ten Championships Notes in PDF Format
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EVANSTON, Ill. -- No. 6 Northwestern enters this weekend's Big Ten Championships on the verge of ending an era. Two of the most dominant swimmers in the conference's history, seniors Matt Grevers (Lake Forest, Ill./Lake Forest) and Mike Alexandrov (Champaign, Ill./Centennial), have one final opportunity to add to their Big Ten legacies, and are the cornerstones of Northwestern's best shot at a Big Ten team title in years.
The pair, with 10 Big Ten individual and six relay championships between them, so far have led the Wildcats to a historic season. Northwestern has a perfect 8-0 record, its first undefeated season in recent memory, while also ranking No. 6 in the nation--its highest ranking in recent memory.
Included in those eight wins are five over ranked opponents. The biggest came versus No. 12 Michigan, a result that snapped the Wolverines 39-meet conference winning streak dating back to 1999 and gave the Wildcats their first win over UM in the last 33 meetings dating back to 1928.
Northwestern also won both four-team invitationals it attended this year. After cruising to the title in its own TYR Invitational in November, the Wildcats made a statement by besting both No. 3 California and No. 10 Florida State to win the Dallas Morning News Swimming and Diving Classic in early January.
The 2007 Big Ten Championships begin at 11 a.m. CT Thursday, Feb. 15 in Columbus, Ohio. Finals begin at 6 p.m. CT Thursday. Prelims and finals will begin at the same times on Friday and Saturday during the three-day meet.
The Wildcats enter this year's Championships with more depth than in the past, both on the top end and in its second and third swimmers. Junior Kyle Bubolz (Waukesha, Wis./Waukesha North) is the two-time defending conference champ in the 100 fly, while the addition of transfer Bruno Barbic (Zagreb, Croatia/V. Gymnazija) gives NU another legitimate sprint freestyle threat and makes the Wildcats' 200 and 400 relays title contenders.
Sophomore Eric Nilsson (Weston, Mass./Weston) has emerged as one of the Big Ten's best mid-distance freestylers and 200 butterflyers, and also will contend for titles this year.
Adding serious scoring threats this year are breaststrokers John Franklin (Fort Lauderdale, Fla./North Broward Prep) and Alex Hostoffer (Cleveland, Ohio/Gilmour Academy); IMer and backstroker Adam Beckman (Kearney, Neb./Kearney) and distance freestyler Daniel Walls (Tucson, Ariz./Sabino).
For Northwestern's complete Championships notes package, click on the .pdf link at the top of this page. For more information, including live results, on the 2007 Big Ten Championships, link to the offical event page at ohiostatebuckeyes.com.