Jan. 9, 2010
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – The first dual meet of 2010 ended in defeat for the Notre Dame men’s swimming and diving team Saturday afternoon at the Rolfs Aquatic Center. The Irish (4-2) fell to visiting Northwestern, 158.5-139.5.
“We were pleased with a few today, including the fact that we were significantly faster on this date this year than we were on this date last year, and that is right after coming off of our training trip,” Irish head coach Tim Welsh said.
“This is a good sign for the future, and it carried over in what you could see in spirit and competitiveness. Congratulations to Northwestern, they won the events they needed to when they needed them, particularly in the 3-meter diving and the 100 freestyle. I thought that was the turning point of the meet. We know where we have to go to work. We want to be faster next week, the week after, and the week after that.”
Notre Dame faces Michigan State next Friday (Jan. 15) at 5:00 p.m. (ET).
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200 Medley Relay: Backstroker Petar Petrovic held nearly even through the first leg … Northwestern’s Nathan Butler pulled ahead of Christopher Johnson on the breast leg … Bill Bass found himself unable to make up any ground on the butterfly leg … a heat-best 20.29 anchor leg by John Lytle came up short and the Irish took second (1:33.42) to the Wildcats (1:32.31).
1,000 Freestyle: Northwestern’s Charlie Rimkus established an early lead on the field and never looked back as he easily cruised to victory in 9:26.54 … Steven Brus was the highest Irish finisher, garnering third place in 9:42.71.
200 Freestyle: Lytle fell behind leader John Frutiger at the midway mark, but hammered home an impressive back-half swim to storm the field for first place (1:41.34) … Andrew Hoffman also turned in a spirited final 50 yards to edge out the early favorite Frutiger and secure second place in 1:42.13.
100 Backstroke: Petrovic used his superior underwater breakouts to edge the field in 51.54 … Christopher Wills came in at 52.72 to get fourth-place points.
100 Breaststroke: Johnson attempted to keep close to Northwestern’s Alex Tyler and Nathan Butler, but fell short … he came in third with a 59.17.
200 Butterfly: Northwestern’s Sean Matthews slowly edged out a lead on the field … MacKenzie LeBlanc’s efforts to catch up came short and he settled for silver (1:51.17) behind Matthews (1:48.79) … Bass completed the top three for the Irish (1:51.90).
50 Freestyle: Lytle won (20.86) the splash and dash for the third consecutive year against the Wildcats to earn his second victory of the afternoon … Dave Anderson sliced in at 21.62 to secure third place.
1-meter Diving: Wesley Villaflor took first with a score of 307.12 … Ryan Koter came in second with a score of 279.08.
100 Freestyle: Hoffman swam to a slight early lead but could not hold on as Matthews (46.32) overtook him in the back half of the race … Hoffman fell to third overall (46.63).
200 Backstroke: Petrovic used his stellar underwater maneuverings to maintain a very slight lead at the halfway mark, and used them to win the distance back for his sweep of the backstroke events in 1:52.50 … Wills (1:52.76) and Michael Sullivan (1:52.91) placed third and fourth for the Irish.
200 Breaststroke: Northwestern handled the Irish in the distance breast, sweeping the top three places … Peter Koppel had the best Irish finish in 2:10.71.
500 Freestyle: Rimkus pulled out ahead early in the mid-distance race and won with a 4:34.75 … Brus swam to third place with a 4:41.96.
100 Butterfly: Matthews won another event, this time edging out Bass, 50.00 to 50.44 … Matthews established his lead on the first 50 and held on the last leg to earn gold.
3-meter Diving: Kalister Harmon edged out Villaflor, 328.88 to 328.34, for the narrow victory … Nathan Geary grabbed third with a score of 288.82.
200 Individual Medley: Northwestern’s Alex Tyler established a lead on the backstroke leg and held on to win in 1:50.42 … Bass took second-place honors (1:53.38) and Sullivan cleaned up the podium with a third-place showing (1:55.98).
400 Free Relay: Lytle blazed to a lead for the Irish (46.43) … John McGinley kept the competitors at bay while Thomas Van Volkenburg extended the Irish lead to a body length … Hoffman dropped the hammer in the anchor position to close out the meet with a victory for the Irish (3:05.08).
–ND–