Juniors Sean Mathews and Alex Tyler churned out some of the fastest times of their careers this year, even as Northwestern suffered a winless Big Ten season. So it was fitting that, despite the team’s last-place finish at the conference championship in late February, Mathews and Tyler earned berths in last weekend’s NCAA Championships.
“It has been a tough season with a lot of ups and downs,” coach Jarod Schroeder said. “Alex and Sean have been great leaders all season long, always coming through and giving us great times. They really continued to train hard for the NCAAs even when the season was done.”
Mathews and Tyler accelerated their pace last summer, Schroeder said. That training carried over into the regular season, as the three-year roommates combined for 11 of the team’s individual season records. Tyler’s times qualified him to swim in the 200- and 400-yard individual medley as well as the 200-yard breaststroke at last weekend’s meet in Columbus, Ohio. Mathews swam his signature 100-yard butterfly and the 200-yard butterfly. After sending just one swimmer to the NCAA Championships last year, the duo hoped to notch enough points to place NU in the top-25. The pair trained intensively for the two weeks following the Big Tens, and then tapered in the two weeks leading up to the NCAAs to try to increase their speed. In the end though, Tyler posted the team’s only two points to earn the Cats a 34th-place finish.
“I felt really good in those last two weeks of training because I was swimming faster than at Big Tens,” Mathews said. “But I didn’t perform up to my ability this weekend, and I’m disappointed in that.”
Mathews hit his taper well in the two weeks prior to the NCAAs and placed 38th in the 100-yard butterfly, despite being ranked 47th in qualifying. Still, Mathews was unable to deliver a top performance in his favored 200-yard butterfly, where he finished 28th overall after being ranked 17th.
Tyler fared slightly better, placing 15th in the 200-yard individual medley with a career-best time that earned him an All-American honorable mention in the event. Tyler finished 23rd in the 400-yard individual medley and 31st in the 200-yard breaststroke.
“I took a really big step forward this past summer,” Tyler said. “But we still did not get all the points we wanted, and that’s something we’re going to work on this summer.”
This was the first NCAA Championship for both Tyler and Mathews. NU only sent Eric Nilsson last year, so Schroeder considered the dual qualifications a success for the program.
But for Mathews, qualifying was not enough.
“Just getting there this year was such a big deal that for a little while I was just satisfied to have that opportunity to go out and swim,” Mathews said. “But now I know that wasn’t enough. I want to prove next year that I belong at this meet, not just that I can qualify.”[email protected]
