Jan. 21, 2011
EAST LANSING, Mich. Despite six individual wins on the night, the Notre Dame men’s swimming and diving squad narrowly lost to Michigan State, 155.5-144.5. The contest was dramatically closer than last year’s dual meet in which Michigan State rolled to a 179-121 win in South Bend.
The Irish (5-3) effort was led by sophomore Bill Bass who won the 200 fly and 400 IM. Bass was joined by Frank Dyer (1,000 free), Kevin Overholt (50 free), Michael Sullivan (500 free) and Eric Lex (3-meter) as first-place finishers.
The Spartans took the early lead by winning four of the first five events. However, Bass and Overholt replied with two straight first-place finishes, winning the 200 fly and 50 free, respectively. Starting with the 1-meter diving contest, Michigan State came back with four consecutive victories to distance themselves from Notre Dame. Despite an Irish rally, which included winning the last three events of the evening, Notre Dame still came up just short.
The Irish will be back in action when they play host to the annual Shamrock Invitational, which spans from Jan. 28-29.
—
200 Medley Relay: The quartet of Petar Petrovic, Christopher Johnson, Bill Bass and Kevin Overholt combined for a second-place finish (1:32.38).
1,000 Free: Freshman Frank Dyer paced himself to a 9:22.35, good for the first Irish victory on the night … Colin Babcock touched the pad in third with a 9:28.39 performance … Ryan Belecanech rounded out the Irish field with a 10:00.52.
200 Free: John McGinley (1:41.80), Steven Brus (1:43.86) and Marshall Sherman (1:46.45) finished in fourth, fifth and sixth, respectively.
100 Back: Petrovic led the Irish with a second-place finish (50.33), touching the wall just sixth one-hundredth of a second behind Jacob Jarzen of Michigan State.
100 Breast: Johnson claimed second for the Irish with a 56.75 … Mason Weber (58.18) and Joe Raycroft (58.74) finished fourth and fifth for the Irish, respectively.
200 Fly: Bill Bass claimed the second Irish victory in the contest with his time of 1:51.85 … Peter Koppel and Jordan Berry swam to times of 1:53.53 and 1:54.14, respectively, which was good for third and fourth-place finishes.
1-meter Diving: The Irish claimed second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth place in the event, led by Eric Lex’s second-place performance (342.07 points).
100 Free: McGinley and Overholt combined to finish second and third with times of 46.83 and 46.90, respectively.
200 Back: Petrovic froze the clock at 1:50.81, registering his second individual second-place finish on the night … freshman Bertie Nel took home bronze with a 1:52.39.
200 Breast: Raycroft (2:06.39), Joshua Choi (2:07.40) and Koppel (2:07.95) combined for a second, third and fourth-place showing.
500 Free: Michael Sullivan won gold for the Irish in a time of 4:35.85…Steven Brus recorded a fourth-place finish (4:40.33)
100 Fly: Dyer was the first Irish swimmer to touch the wall, registering a fourth-place finish (51.80).
3-meter Diving: Eric Lex, who dove to a first-place finish, registered the seventh highest point total in school history in the event a 375.60.
400 IM: Bass won his second event of the night, stopping the clock at 4:01.27 … Sullivan took second with a time of 4:03.31.
400 Free Relay: Overholt, McGinley, Dyer and Thomas Van Volkenburg teamed up to win the final event of the night in 3:03.42.
–ND–