By Brian ReganThe Daily Northwestern
After another strong performance from its top swimmers, Northwestern dominated Wisconsin (3-2, 1-1 Big Ten) 142-97, to stay undefeated in dual meets this season in front of another large crowd at the Norris Aquatics Center.
The No. 7 Wildcats (3-0, 3-0) won 12 of 13 events, dropping only the last event of the afternoon, the 400-yard free relay.
“I think the team did very well,” senior Matt Grevers said. “I was satisfied with my swims and everyone swam well.”
The Cats started the afternoon strong with the quartet of Grevers, Kyle Bubolz, Jimmy Sourbeer and John Franklin winning the 200-yard IM relay and never looked back.
“Last week we had some good swims,” coach Bob Groseth said, “but we had a couple of bad ones. This time we didn’t have as many bad swims. We were more consistent and at a higher level.”
The Badgers won the final event against two NU teams that haven’t swam together this season.
Grevers won two individual events in addition to his relay victory and has yet to be defeated on the year. He had an impressive finish in the 50-yard free by winning by almost a full-body length in the shortest event of the meet .
“I loved the crowd,” Grevers said. “Especially because this is my second-to-last home meet. “
Sophomore Eric Nilsson and senior Mike Alexandrov pick up three victories each.
Alexandrov won the 1000-yard free easily, but needed a strong breaststroke to move from third to first in the 200-yard IM. He went back to his dominating ways in the 200-yard breast to win by seven seconds.
Nilsson mirrored Alexandrov in the 200-yard fly to come from behind and take the win while dominating his other two events.
“I was happy with my performance,” Nilsson said. “I stepped up in the 200 fly. I came back right after my 200 free and had a great race.”
In addition to the team’s All-Americans, the Cats’ other swimmers had a solid performance against the Badgers.
“Our good guys swam like they always do, and you don’t want to take that for granted,” Groseth said. “But I liked the way some of our other guys competed like Adam Beckman and Alex Hostoffer.”
Several swimmers, including Beckman and Hostoffer, picked up valuable points, placing in events won by Grevers, Alexandrov or Nilsson to keep the meet out of reach from Wisconsin.
Now Groseth wants these swimmers to move forward in challenging the upperclassmen and try to win events in their own right.
“At the TYR invite we are going to have a ‘super-final,'” Groseth said.
