Last weekend’s Big Ten Championships in Ann Arbor Mich., seemed to sum up Northwestern’s season perfectly.
Despite a gutsy effort and some great individual swims, the Wildcats finished in sixth place with 438 points, well behind Michigan’s first-place score of 1081.5.
Even with NCAA champions Matt Grevers and Mike Alexandrov last season, the Cats could only muster a fifth-place finish in the tough Big Ten.
“We did well,” coach Bob Groseth said. “Of course you’d like to finish with a better result, but I thought the guys fought hard and were competitive.”
In Thursday’s morning session, NU got some strong performances, with seven swimmers recording season-best efforts. But despite the strong personal swims, only junior Eric Nilsson in the 500 free and seniors Kyle Bubolz and Bruno Barbic in the 50 free qualified for championship heats.
Bubolz and Barbic engaged in a duel in the 50 free during the evening portion. In the morning, the two had separated themselves from the pack with identical times of 19.66, setting up an epic final heat.
With a career-best time of 19.64, Bubolz took the title over Barbic by just .05 seconds, giving NU its fifth straight victory in the event.
There was little the Cats could do to top that.
While the team produced ‘B’ cuts in the two relay events, the 200 free and 400 medley, they failed to defend their titles, finishing fourth and fifth. Nilsson fought to a sixth-place finish in the 500 free with a time of 4:26, well off his season average.
The trend carried over to Friday, as the team continued to swim well, but struggled to earn points.
The Cats turned in eight season-best times, including career-bests for sophomore Bryan Pinkston and seniors Charlie Cunnick and Jon Ehret in the 400 individual medley, but qualified for the finals in only three events.
Bubolz began his quest for his fourth straight Big Ten title in the 100 fly with a season-best and NCAA ‘A’ cut time of 46.38 seconds, finishing the morning heat in first. But in a final in which the top three swimmers all finished with ‘A’ cut times, Bubolz found himself in third place at 46.57 seconds, behind Indiana’s Ben Hesen (46.38) and Michigan’s Chris Brady (46.49).
“That was a tough one,” Groseth said. “I think Kyle really wanted to win the 100 fly but just got fatigued near the end of the race.”
Saturday produced more of the same. The Cats struggled to keep up with a strong Big Ten field, as they continued to produce their best times while having little to show for it.
In the 200 fly, Nilsson swam a career-best time of 1:45, but managed just a fifth-place finish, meaning he will have to wait until next year to capture that elusive conference title.
Yet one thing was certain: This was Bubolz’s weekend.
The senior continued his solid tournament with silver-medal finishes in the 100 free and 400 free relay, pushing his medal count to four. Bubolz capped off his final conference event by earning first-team All Big Ten honors for the second consecutive year.
His classmate Barbic also ended his Big Ten career on a high note with his first second-team All Big-Ten nod.
Overall, NU produced 20 ‘B’ provisional times and will send a strong team to Seattle for the NCAA championships at the end of the month.
Considering the team’s overwhelming success in the past few seasons, the year provided the Cats with a sobering dose of reality. But the weekend did show that the program is in capable hands as it tries to move forward without Grevers and Alexandrov.
Led by Alex Tyler, who swam well enough to qualify for the NCAAs, the freshmen have shown they are capable of recording solid times.
“We had some remarkable performances from our freshmen,” Groseth said. “They showed me they can really step up and perform.”
With a large number of swimmers returning, the Cats should build off last weekend’s experience and will be back in the hunt next season.
