Jan. 23, 2010
EVANSTON, Ill. -- Northwestern made a big comeback to take a late lead Saturday on senior day at the Norris Aquatics Center, but Iowa swept the top two spots in the final relay of the meet to defeat the Wildcats, 149.5-144.5.
The loss drops NU to 4-4 overall on the dual-meet season.
Prior to the beginning of the meet, Northwestern honored seniors Chris Doman (Pittsburgh, Pa./St. Charles Prep (Columbus, Ohio)) and Kalister Harmon (Olympia, Wash./Capital). More than 600 people attended the Chipotle BIG MEET, where the first 50 students to arrive received a free burrito coupon and one lucky student earned an entire quarter's supply.
The team of Alex Tyler (Birmingham, Mich./Birmingham Groves), Nathan Butler (Cincinnati, Ohio/Turpin), Brian Kerr (East Grand Rapids, Mich./East Grand Rapids) and Sean Mathews (St. Louis, Mo./Lafayette) roared out to a big lead in the opening 200 medley relay, closing out a full-second margin of victory with a 1:31.34.
Freshman Charlie Rimkus (Tustin, Calif./Beckman) cut more than six seconds off his season-best time to win the 1,000 free going away, logging a time of 9:20.31. Teammate Peter Park (Princeton, N.J./Peddie School) was second for NU.
After Iowa swept the top two positions in the 200 free, Tyler finished in a dead heat for second place in the 100 back with a season-best time of 50.58. Varun Shivakumar (Hoffman Estates, Ill./Fremd) was fourth with a season-best 51.83.
Butler charged ahead in the 100 breast to win with a season-best effort of 56.06, winning the race by more than 1.5 seconds. Rimkus then led a 1-2-3 sweep for Northwestern in the 200 fly, swimming a 1:51.50 to out-touch teammate Tony Mattar's (Lake Orion, Mich./Lake Orion) second-place time of 1:51.68. Park came in third in 1:53.51.
Iowa turned the tables in the 50 free, taking the top two positions before Mathews came in with a third-place time of 20.63. He narrowly missed out on second by .01 of a second.
During the first half of the meet, Harmon won the 3-meter springboard diving event on his senior day with a 310.58. He was third on the 1-meter board during the second-half portion of the meet.
Coming out of the break, Mathews took second in the 100 free as Northwestern's top finisher, then Iowa swept the top two spots in the 200 back.
Tyler put the Wildcats back on the winning track with a 2:03.12 to capture the 200 breast by more than a full second. Butler (third) and Jay Calhoun (Palos Verdes Peninsula, Calif./Palos Verdes Peninsula) in fourth also scored points for NU in the race.
With Northwestern trailing, Rimkus and Mattar went 1-2 in the 500 freestyle to pull the Wildcats within two points, 120.5-118.5. Rimkus swam a 4:34.92 and Mattar a season-best 4:36.61, followed by John Frutiger (Alma, Mich./Alma) garnering huge fourth-place points with a 4:41.20.
Mathews then pushed the Wildcats on top with a season-best 48.99 in the 100 fly, beating Iowa's Paul Gordon to the wall by .11 of a second to win the event. Kerr and Doman took fourth and fifth to win three more points, providing NU's leading margin of three heading into the second break of the meet.
Tyler rocked the field on his way to victory in the 200 IM, swimming a 1:49.72 to win by nearly four seconds. Park took fourth and Mattar fifth to give the Wildcats an eight-point cushion heading into the final relay.
With Zombie Nation and hundreds of yelling fans raising the noise level inside Norris to deafening levels, Northwestern needed to win or finish 2-3 in the 400 free relay to capture the meet. Iowa, however, pulled off the 1-2 sweep to win the meet by five points, 149.5-144.5.
Northwestern returns to action Jan. 29-30 in a quad-dual against Michigan, Ohio State and Penn State in Columbus, Ohio.