Grant Halsall became the fifth-fastest Wildcat in the 200 backstroke with his Saturday morning preliminary heat swim.
Saturday Preliminary Session Results
IOWA CITY, Iowa -- Northwestern placed four Wildcats in scoring finals during preliminary action in five events Saturday morning at the 2015 Big Ten Championships hosted by Iowa at the Campus Recreation and Wellness Center.
The evening session begins at 6:30 p.m. CT tonight with the final heat of the 1,650 freestyle in which Northwestern junior Jordan Wilimovsky (Malibu, Calif./Malibu) is among the favorites for the B1G title.
Northwestern got two swimmers into the consolation final of Saturday's first event, the 200 backstroke. Junior Grant Halsall (Laxey, Isle of Man, GBR) became the fifth-fastest Wildcat ever in the event with an NCAA `B' cut and career-best 1:43.79 to qualify 11th overall for the evening while freshman Alex Snarski (Libertyville, Ill./Libertyville) was just behind him in 12th with a career-best 1:44.27.
Two more Wildcats straddled the line of automatic second swims in the 200 back. Sophomore Jonathan Lieberman (Eden Prairie, Minn./Eden Prairie) dropped over four seconds off of his career-best in the event to swim an NCAA `B' cut of 1:45.37 and place 24th overall, earning a bonus final swim. Meanwhile, freshman Nick Petersen (Thiensville, Wis./Homestead) swam a career-best 1:45.61 for a `B' cut of his own to place 25th.
Freshman Almog Olshtein (Haifa, Israel/Haifa) made the scoring consolation final of the 100 free with a career-best and NCAA `B' time of 43.99 to qualify 15th overall. Sophomore Andy Jovanovic (Chicago, Ill./Loyola Academy) had a career-best 44.52 to place 24th overall, grabbing the final bonus heat slot for Saturday night.
In the 200 breast, junior Van Donkersgoed (Eden Prairie, Minn./Minnehaha Academy) went an NCAA `B' time of 1:58.97 to come in 20th overall in the morning, picking up a bonus final swim in the evening.
Senior Andrew Seitz (Pleasanton, Calif./Amador Valley) was NU's top finisher in the 200 fly Saturday morning, placing 30th overall with a career-best 1:51.84.
In the platform diving event, in his final collegiate competition, senior John Andrade (Avon, Conn./Avon) qualified 15th overall for the platform consolation final with a score of 289.55.
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