Jan. 14, 2012
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – Before last season, the Notre Dame men’s swimming and diving team had not defeated Northwestern in dual meet action since 1990-91. With the 10-meet skid to the Big Ten Conference foe soothed by a victory in 2010-11, Notre Dame (5-3) began its own streak by posting a 157-143 victory Saturday at the Rolfs Aquatic Center to make it back-to-back wins over the Wildcats.
The Irish squad arrived in South Bend from its winter training session in Puerto Rico no less than 48 hours before it took to the water against Northwestern. Little did it matter to Frank Dyer, Kevin Overholt and Michael Kreft, each of whom tallied a pair of individual wins on the day.
Dyer and Overholt were also part of the 400 free relay squad that took first place to seal the win.
Notre Dame will keep the carpet rolled out for the Big Ten Conference as Michigan State will battle the Irish at 2:00 p.m. (ET) next Saturday (Jan. 21). Live coverage of the event will be available at UND.com.
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200 Medley Relay: Northwestern took two of the top three spots, including a first-place showing in 1:30.59 … second place went to Notre Dame in 1:31.62 behind the efforts of Petar Petrovic, Cameron Miller, Dyer and Overholt.
1,000 Free: Jimmy McEldrew (9:29.80) was second as Brennan Jacobsen (9:33.21) took third.
200 Free: Dyer (1:38.94) posted the first of his two wins with John McGinley (1:41.74) tapping third in the race.
100 Back: Petrovic (50.46) managed a second-place showing in front of Bertie Nel (51.70), who was third overall.
100 Breast: Miller (55.89), Christopher Johnson (56.62), Colin Babcock (58.29) and Zachary Stephens (58.80) finished in order behind Uula Auren (55.89) of Northwestern.
200 Fly: Broderick Kelley (1:52.35) represented Notre Dame with a silver performance and Wesley Mullins (1:52.46) notched a third-place swim.
50 Free: Overholt (20.84) went head-to-head with Jake Grosser (20.88) to win the splash and dash.
1-meter Diving: Keft (322.50) was the leading scorer among the four Irish divers to place in the top six … Ryan Koter (316.20) and Nick Nemetz (310.49) placed second and third, respectively.
100 Free: Overholt did the deed in 45.34 to win the event and was the only swimmer to break the 46.00 barrier.
200 Back: McEldrew (1:15.59) placed second as Nel (1:51.70) wore the bronze medal for the second time.
200 Breast: Stephens (2:03.19) was second in front of a 2:03.36 time from Miller which was good for third … Babcock took fourth in 2:03.48.
500 Free: Dyer tapped first in 4:31.90 as Kevin Hughes (4:35.72) went the distance for third … Jacobsen went 4:38.01 while finishing fourth.
100 Fly: Bill Bass (50.48) led all Irish swimmers with a second-place effort.
3-meter Diving: Kreft (364.43), Nemetz (344.33) and Koter (330.38) wrapped up the top three spots in the standings.
400 Individual Medley: Patrick Olson (4:03.70) led the Irish and finished third with Babcock (4:04.85) claiming fourth
400 Free Relay: Dyer started things off for the relay and was followed by McGinley, Overholt and Bass to stop the clock in 3:00.92 for the win.
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