This weekend was an important one for the No. 18 Wildcats. After a season of ups and downs, Northwestern needed a strong final conference dual meet in Ann Arbor, Mich., to boost its confidence heading into the Big Ten championships.
While the two-day event featured Michigan, the Cats had already faced the No. 4 Wolverines. Therefore, only their races against No. 16 Penn State and No. 13 Ohio State were counted.
While their 232.5-132.5 loss to the Buckeyes showed that the Cats haven’t quite reached the level of the conference’s elite, a solid 183-150 victory over the Nittany Lions proved the team cannot be ignored when the conference reconvenes for the Big Ten Championships at the end of February.
“I think the team is very confident,” said junior Eric Nilsson. “People had some pretty good races this weekend and we were not rested or under the best of conditions.”
The weekend did not start well for NU. On the way to the meet, the team bus broke down, delaying the trip almost five hours and leaving no time to settle in before the meet began.
Worn out by the long trip, the Cats struggled in the early events. The 400 medley relay team of juniors Eric Nilsson and John Franklin and seniors Kyle Bubolz and Bruno Barbic finished a distant third, while freshman Alex Tyler’s eighth-place finish in the 1000 freestyle was the team’s best time in the event.
But NU rallied, driven by gutsy performances from some of its upperclassmen. In the 200 free, Nilsson took fourth place, besting the swimmers from both of the Cats’ dual-meet opponents. Barbic and Bubolz followed with second- and third-place finishes in the 50 free, topped only by Michigan’s Chris Brady.
Yet it was Nilsson’s swim in the 200 butterfly that brought the Cats back to life. Trailing Michigan rival Matt Patton with 50 yards to go, Nilsson unleashed a tremendous split time of 27.43 seconds to out-touch Patton by 0.62 seconds.
Led by these performances, the Cats managed to turn a disastrous start to the day into a 78-70 lead over Penn State and a manageable deficit against the Buckeyes.
“I thought that the team did a good job of adapting to some tough racing conditions,” Nilsson said. “There was good competition in every event, with some of the top teams in the Big Ten in attendance.”
Saturday saw a much stronger NU team. The second day opened with a season-best time in the 200 medley relay and a much closer third-place finish. Nilsson continued his exceptional weekend with two NCAA “B” provisional qualifying times in the 500 free and 800 free relay. Bubolz swam NU’s third “B” cut with a second-place finish in the 100 fly. The one disappointment of the day came when Barbic was disqualified in one of the Cats’ strongest events, the 100 free.
Nonetheless, the second day showed a much more spirited NU team, one very capable of swimming well when the action returns to Ann Arbor, Mich., on Feb. 28 for the Big Ten Championships.
“I know everybody is definitely ready to swim some fast times in a couple of weeks,” Nilsson said.
