Oct. 23, 2008
EVANSTON, Ill. -- For the third-consecutive season Northwestern will begin its dual-meet schedule against a ranked Indiana team, opening its 2008-09 campaign with the 14th-ranked Hoosiers at 2 p.m. CT Friday, Oct. 24, at the Counsilman-Billingsley Aquatics Center in Bloomington, Ind.
Northwestern has split its last two season-openers against Indiana, defeating then-No. 12 Indiana in 2006 when the Wildcats were ranked No. 8, and falling to the then-No. 8 Hoosiers in 2007 when NU held the No. 18 ranking. Indiana enters this year's meeting with a 1-0 record after defeating Kentucky last week.
The Wildcats are coming off their fifth-straight top-12 national finish, but with a much smaller squad size and some unproven talent this year the 'Cats are unranked to begin the season.
"We are very much an untested team this early in the season," head coach Bob Groseth said. "We have been in school barely a month so I have no idea what to expect. The team has been training hard and they are looking forward to getting a break from the training grind to go racing."
Leading the way for Northwestern is three-time All-American Eric Nilsson (Weston, Mass./Weston), who is looking to be a Big Ten force in the middle distance freestyle events while also eyeing the crown in the 200 fly. Sophomore Brian Kerr (East Grand Rapids, Mich./East Grand Rapids) won a pair of All-America honors last year as a member of NU's two freestyle relays.
Seniors Adam Beckman (Kearney, Neb./Kearney) in the backstroke and John Franklin (Fort Lauderdale, Fla./North Broward Prep) in the breaststroke will be NU's leaders in those stroke groups, aiming to make some real noise in their final collegiate season.
The sophomore class has the potential to be a big one for the Wildcats this season. In addition to Kerr, Sean Mathews (St. Louis, Mo./Lafayette), Peter Park (Princeton, N.J./Peddie School) and Alex Tyler (Birmingham, Mich./Birmingham Groves) all made contributions as freshmen and Groseth cites their classmate Truman Liang (Brooklyn, N.Y./Hunter College High School) as having started this year's training "on a mission."
In the diving events, senior Alex Kiaie (Milwaukee, Wis./Nicolet) has scored on all three boards at the last two Big Ten Championships, and sophomore transfer Kalister Harmon (Olympia, Wash./Capital) has the ability to make monster contributions in his first year as a Wildcat.
The meet has been named a Meet of the Week by Swimming World Magazine, and as such it will receive front-page love at SwimmingWorldMagazine.com. Live results for the meet are available at IUHoosiers.com.
"This is a meet that our guys really look forward to and we generally have some breakthrough swims in the meet," Groseth said. "Indiana has a very strong team and always swims fast at home. We have a small team this year so I expect Indiana's depth and their traditional strength in diving to be the biggest factors to overcome.
"That being said, our guys are ready to go fast and see what happens. See you Friday. Go 'Cats!"