By Brian ReganThe Daily Northwestern
After falling behind in the opening leg of the 400-yard medley relay to No. 3 California to start the Dallas Morning News Swimming and Diving Classic, Northwestern senior Mike Alexandrov summoned all his energy to start the meet right.
Alexandrov erased a half-second deficit and turned it into a near three second lead to smash a pool record and win the event.
“It was a critical point early on, where the mindset of the meet could have changed dramatically,” coach Bob Groseth said. “Mike threw in a monster breaststroke leg and set the tone for the rest of the meet.”
The No. 8 Wildcats won 12 of 18 events and dispatched Cal and No. 10 Florida State, as well as the host of the event, Southern Methodist University.
The level of competition at the meet was much higher than the team had seen so far this season and the result provided a surge for the team’s already high morale.
“There were good races in every event,” sophomore Eric Nilsson said. “It says a lot and it is a big confidence booster because we went down there thinking we had a chance to win and we did pretty well.”
While Nilsson did not win an individual event, he placed second twice and won the consolation heat in the 200-yard free.
Senior Matt Grevers broke three pool records and his own school record in the 200-free, an event he is trying to improve his time in this season.
But the story of the meet was Alexandrov, who grabbed swimmer of the meet honors and was six hundredths of a second off his school record in the 100-yard breast.
“My own swims went very well,” Alexandrov said. “This was probably the first time this year that we got really fired up and we beat No. 3 Cal, which is exciting.”
The meet was close throughout between Cal and NU until midway through the second day when Cal’s Richard Hunter was disqualified in the 200-yard breaststroke, giving the Cats an insurmountable lead.
While the top nine Cats were in Dallas, the rest of the team beat Carthage College in Kenosha, Wis., capturing nine of eleven events.
Junior Daniel Walls won two events and several of the underclassmen did their best to shine without their All-American teammates in attendance.
With less than a month until the Big Ten championships, the Cats are hoping this weekend’s performance made a statement that they can compete with the top teams of the sport.
“Now we are going to be resting for Big Ten’s,” Alexandrov said. “They are going to show a lot. Right now I am number one in the 100 and 200 breast and if I can keep that it should be good news for us.”
Reach Brian Regan at [email protected].
