Nov. 19, 2010
EVANSTON, Ill. -- Helped by its first two NCAA consideration times of the season and propelled by a wildly deep team performance in the 200 IM, Northwestern jumped out to a big lead Friday at the Norris Aquatics Center after the first day of competition at its own five-team TYR Invitational.
NU scored 354 points Friday, building a 140-point edge on second-place Cleveland State's 214. North Dakota is third with 176.5, Kenyon College is fourth with 166.5 and UIC is fifth with 134.
The three-day TYR Invitational continues tomorrow, Saturday, Nov. 20, with preliminary heats at 9 a.m. CT and finals at 6 p.m. CT. Sunday's final day features a 9 a.m. CT preliminary session with 3 p.m. CT finals in the afternoon.
Preliminary portion of Friday's action:
In the first event of the 2010 TYR Invitational, former Northwestern NCAA champion and two-time Olympian Mike Alexandrov swam unattached and defeated the field in the 50 breast to qualify first overall for the finals. The top collegiate entry also was a Wildcat, with Nathan Butler swimming a 26.36 to come in second overall.
Brien Gerber earned a scoring lane with a 13th place overall finish in 28.34 while Mac Anthony also snuck into the consolation final with a 16th-place time of 28.82. Tim Smith picked up a second-swim in the bonus final with a 30.19 to take 22nd overall.
Peter Park's then-season-best 4:31.90 won the 500 free prelims to lead a four-Wildcat contingent in the championship final. Charlie Rimkus was third overall with a 4:35.44, John Frutiger came in fourth in 4:36.23 and Jan Hanulik rounded out the NU `A' heat swarm with a fifth-place 4:37.70.
Tony Mattar (4:47.38) and Chase Stephens (4:47.46) both snuck into the consolation final by placing 15th and 16th, respectively, to pick up scoring opportunities for the Wildcats. Varun Shivakumar's 20th place 4:48.52 won him a second swim in the bonus final of the 500 free.
Next came the 200 IM, which Northwestern absolutely dominated in the morning. Alexandrov won the prelim heats and Wildcats won six of the other seven lanes held by collegiate entries. Alex Tyler's 1:52.28 was good for second overall followed by Hanulik (1:54.14) in third, Sean Mathews (1:54.25) in fourth, Rimkus (1:54.47) in fifth, Park (1:55.73) in seventh and senior Jake Vogel (1:55.94) in eighth.
Mattar and Gerber both made the consolation final for the second time Friday night with their preliminary swims in the 200 IM. Mattar was 12th overall in 1:57.04 and Gerber took 15th in 1:58.37. Again Shivakumar picked up a bonus final lane, this time being joined by John Frutiger. Shivakumar swam a 1:59.10 to take 19th and Frutiger was 21st in 1:59.71.
Contrasting the sheer Wildcat-ness of the 200 IM was the 50 free, which saw Alexander Ratajczyk earn the lone NU entry into the championship final. Ratajczyk swam a then-season-best 21.15 to place seventh overall after the morning session.
Dominik Cubelic was ninth during the preliminary heats with a season-best 21.25 to earn one of four Wildcat lanes in the consolation heat. Mathews (13th overall; 21.41), Tyler (14th overall; 21.42) and Ross McAuliffe (15th overall; 21.44) joined Cubelic in that scoring final. Freshman Matt Wilcox picked up a second-swim with a 21.73 to finish 20th overall and earn a bonus final lane.
Finals portion of Friday's action:
Northwestern got off to a strong start Friday night with a win in the 200 free relay. The team of Ratajczyk, Mathews, Tyler and Cubelic turned in a season-best 1:22.31 to edge Cleveland State by .30 of a second. Ratajczyk earned a slim lead for NU with a season-best 50-free time of 20.97 in the leadoff position, but the Wildcats actually trailed in the race heading into the anchor leg. Cubelic ripped off a 20.19 split to chase down CSU's Alex Lewis (20.56) to earn top points for the `Cats.
While the individual swimming finals were held, Nick Pinkerton led the Northwestern effort on the 3-meter springboard to take third place overall in the only diving event held Friday. Pinkerton scored a 269.15 for NU.
Alexandrov's 24.36 easily won the 50 breast, with Butler cutting .04 of a second off his preliminary time but falling from the second seed to fourth-place overall for the Wildcats. The big story in the 50 breast for NU Friday night was written by Anthony, who surged from 16th after the preliminary heats all the way to 10th overall during the consolation final, dropping 1.18 seconds to turn in a 27.64. Gerber took 15th with a 28.46 Friday night. Smith cut time in his bonus final swim, moving up a spot to place 21st after a 29.76.
In the championship final of the 500 free, Rimkus blazed to a more-than-10-second improvement to win in NCAA `B' consideration fashion with a season-best 4:24.77. The effort was NU's first NCAA cut time of the 2010-11 season. His more-than-four-second victory paced a Wildcat squad which earned four of the top-five spots in the event. Park's season-best 4:31.60 took third overall while Frutiger was fourth in 4:33.96 and Hanulik placed fifth in 4:35.06.
Mattar, who was 15th overall after the morning swim, came back to swim 12.28 seconds faster and win the consolation final with a season-best 4:35.10. Stephens also improved dramatically, turning his 16th-place slot into an 11th-place overall finish by cutting almost nine full seconds from his preliminary time to turn in a 4:38.57. Shivakumar joined the Wildcats making dramatic drops in time with a more-than-10-second cut in the bonus final, winning the heat and taking 17th overall with a 4:37.96.
In the 200 IM finals, Tyler smoked the field and defeated the two-time Olympian Alexandrov by more than a second with an NU-season-best and NCAA `B' provisional qualifying standard of 1:46.57. After Alexandrov's second-place time, it was all Wildcats in places third-through-seventh with every `Cat cutting time from his morning effort.
Mathews (1:50.35) was third, Rimkus (1:52.66) took fourth, Hanulik (1:53.58) came in fifth, Vogel (1:54.51) placed sixth and Park (1:55.65) turned in a seventh-place effort for NU to complete the 200 IM championship final. In the consolation heat, Mattar moved up from 12th to 10th overall with a 1:55.34 at night while Gerber jumped from 15th to 12th with a 1:57.63. Shivakumar again put on a show in the bonus final, winning by 3.7 seconds when he cut 4.10 seconds from his preliminary swim to turn in a 17th-place overall time of 1:55.00 -- a time which would have take second place in the consolation heat.
Ratajczyk jumped three spots to finish fourth overall in the 50 free after a 21.08 in the championship heat. Cubelic raced to a consolation-final winning time of 20.84, easily his best effort of the season and a time that would have placed him second overall in the entire field. McAuliffe took third in the consolation final and 11th overall with a season-best 21.08. Also scoring points for NU in the event were Mathews (21.59) in 15th and Tyler (22.04) in 16th.
Freshman Wilcox shot up from 20th to 17th place overall after a 21.40 to win the bonus final for Northwestern.
The Wildcats put an exclamation point on the opening day of the TYR with a more-than five second victory in the 400 medley relay. The team of Cubelic, Tyler, Mathews and Ratajczyk put up a season-best 3:19.27 to capture that crown.
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