TYR Invitational: Day Two

EVANSTON, Illinois, November 20. NORTHWESTERN earned two more individual NCAA `B’ consideration
times and its first relay `B’ cut of the year Saturday at the TYR Invitational while
extending its lead over the field during the second day of action at the Norris
Aquatics Center.

NU has 732 points, leading second-place Cleveland State (461), third-place Kenyon
College (406.5), fourth-place North Dakota (338.5) and fifth-place UIC (334).

The three-day TYR Invitational concludes tomorrow, Sunday, Nov. 21, with preliminary
heats at 9 a.m. CT and finals at 3 p.m. CT.

Preliminary portion of Saturday’s action:

Charlie Rimkus set the tone early for Northwestern Saturday morning with a
dominating 2.63 second win during the preliminary heats of the 400 IM with a time of
4:00.30. He paced a four-Wildcat contingent of Peter Park (second place; 4:02.93),
Alex Tyler (third place; 4:04.74) and John Frutiger (eighth place; 4:10.22) to earn
spots in the championship final of the event.

Sean Mathews earned the Wildcats lone entry into the 100 fly championship heat with
a third-place morning finish in 50.33. Dominik Cubelic won the final scoring spot in
the event with a 16th-place time of 52.47 in the preliminary heats, barely
out-touching teammate Nathan Butler’s 17th place time of 52.49. Butler earned the
top lane in the bonus final along with fellow Wildcats Tony Mattar (19th; 53.22) and
Brien Gerber (21st; 53.36), though only Gerber would go on to swim at night.

Frutiger won the top spot in the 200 free prelims by nearly a full second with a
1:41.17, followed by Rimkus in third with a 1:42.08, Jan Hanulik in fifth with a
1:42.54 and Park in seventh with a 1:43.78. With four `Cats in the championship
final, no NU entry made the consolation final in the 200 free, although Mattar, Alex
Ratajczyk, Chase Stephens and Jake Vogel all won spots in the bonus final.

Nathan Butler was the top Wildcat in the 100 breast in the morning, coming in third
with a 57.63. Gerber fought his way into the consolation heat by taking 13th in the
prelims with a 1:01.35. Mac Anthony (17th; 1:02.96) and Tim Smith (21st; 1:04.87)
won second-swims in the bonus final.

Tyler rounded out the morning action by winning the 100 back preliminary heats with
a time of 51.43. Cubelic was third in 51.79, Varun Shivakumar was sixth in 52.61 and
Mathews took seventh in 52.65 to give NU four swimmers in the title heat. Hanulik
was 10th after the morning session with a 53.12 and Vogel was 11th in 53.35 to give
both `Cats consolation final lanes. Ratajczyk (18th; 55.38) and Daniel Salovesh
(24th; 57.25) both earned second swims in the bonus final.

Finals portion of Saturday’s action:

Tyler, Butler, Mathews and Cubelic opened the evening session with an easy win in
the 200 medley relay, booking a season-best time of 1:30.86. Tyler put the team in
the lead early with a 23.24 50 back split before Mathews’ meet-best 21.59 50 fly
opened an insurmountable advantage.

During the swimming events Saturday night, the men’s divers competed in the 1-meter
springboard event. Nick Pinkerton was the top-finishing Wildcats with a score of
249.40.

In the 400 IM championship final, Tyler and Rimkus put on a stellar
duel-in-the-pool. Tyler jumped ahead big during the strokes before Rimkus
desperately tried to reel in his teammate in the final 100 free sprint, but Tyler
touched the wall .27 of a second ahead of Rimkus for the win. Still, Tyler’s 3:51.63
and Rimkus’ 3:51.90 both are NCAA `B’ consideration times and were nearly six full
seconds ahead of the next-closest competitor.

Park came in third in the 400 IM with a 3:57.59, more than five seconds better than
his morning swim to make it a 1-2-3 NU sweep at the top.

Finding himself trailing at the 50-yard mark, Mathews turned on the jets to win the
100 fly by .15 of a second with a time of 48.81. Cubelic finished in a dead-heat for
the victory in the consolation final with Cleveland State’s Justin Kermack, both
turning in a 51.54 – although Cubelic’s performance was more impressive given he
took ninth overall after sneaking into the scoring heat in 16th place in qualifying.
Gerber cut .70 of a second off his preliminary time for a 52.66 in the bonus 100 fly
final to take 19th.

Frutiger lead a second 1-2-3 NU sweep in the finals with a 1:39.54 in the 200 free,
whipping second-place teammate Hanulik’s 1:41.25 and Park’s 1:41.85. Tired from his
earlier 400 IM race with Tyler, Rimkus placed eighth in the 200 free with a finals
time of 1:43.45.

All four Wildcats in the bonus final rose to the top, led by Mattar’s 17th place
1:42.39, then Stephens’ 18th-place 1:42.68, Ratajczyk’s 1:43.06 and Wilcox’s
1:45.32. Interestingly, the top three `Cats in the bonus final also would have been
the top three finishers in the consolation heat with those evening times.

Butler (57.48) took third overall in the 100 breast while Anthony (59.97) was 10th
and Gerber (1:00.26) was 11th. Smith won the bonus heat in 1:01.52, cutting more
than three seconds off his prelim time to win his heat by 2.47 seconds.

Tyler led a 1-2-3-4 Northwestern sweep in the 100 back with a 49.71 to win the
event. Shivakumar rose to second with a 50.47, more than two seconds faster than his
prelim time. Cubelic was third in 50.53 — just .05 of a second behind Shivakumar —
and Mathews was fourth in 51.91.

Vogel won the consolation final with a 51.33 to drop more than two seconds from his
morning swim. Hanulik took 11th overall in 52.34, then Ratajczyk won the bonus final
in 53.85 and Salovesh jumped from 24th to 20th with a 55.26 Saturday night.

Northwestern concluded Saturday night’s action with a nearly 12 second win in the
800 free relay, getting an NCAA `B’ cut of 6:40.52 from the team of Park, Hanulik,
Tyler and Frutiger.

Northwestern earned its first NCAA `B’ consideration times of the
season from a member of its freshman class and a relay Saturday night at the TYR
Invitational, widening its lead over the six-team field at the Norris Aquatics
Center.

NU has 890.5 points while second-place Iowa State has 472.5, third-place Cleveland
State has 397.5, fourth-place North Dakota has 307, fifth-place Kenyon has 238 and
sixth-place UIC has 159.5 points.

The three-day TYR Invitational concludes tomorrow, Sunday, Nov. 21, with preliminary
heats at 9 a.m. CT and finals at 3 p.m. CT.

Preliminary portion of Saturday’s action:

One day after placing four Wildcats in the championship final of the 200 IM,
Northwestern earned five slots the `A’ final of the 400 IM following the morning
heats. Kathleen Patterson qualified second overall with a 4:26.11, followed by
Jacquie Godbe (4:27.86) in third, Hannah Points (4:28.83) in fourth, Becca Soderholm
(4:30.28) in fifth and Meaghan Fenn (4:31.18) in sixth. Northwestern lone other
swimmer in the event was freshman Megan Goss, who qualified 12th overall to earn a
consolation final berth with a 4:34.13.

Alex Kraus went out very hard and cruised to a first-place finish in the 100 fly
during prelims with a 55.89. Meghan Cavanaugh swam a 57.11 to place fourth and
Marybeth Hall was seventh with a 57.48 to join Kraus in the championship heat. Three
Wildcats also made it to the consolation final, led by Katie Eschenburg in 10th
after a 57.93. Shelby Johnson qualified 12th in 58.13 and Taylor Reynolds was 14th
with a 58.40. Both Liza Engstrom and Meredith King made it to the bonus final with
their morning efforts.

One day after lighting up the pool to the tune of an NCAA `B’ consideration time in
the 500 free, Ellen Grigg won the qualifying in the 200 free by nearly two full
seconds Saturday morning with a 1:50.39. Jackie Powell also made the `A’ heat with a
third-place morning swim of 1:52.94.

Meredith King’s 1:54.50 and Beth Loe’ 1:54.81 were good for 10th and 11th places
overall to place them in the consolation final along with Caroline Walls, who
out-touched teammate Erin Sosdian by .10 of a second for the 16th and final scoring
slot in the evening heats. Walls swam a 1:56.23 while Sosdian’s 1:56.33 earned her
the fourth lane in Saturday night’s bonus heat.

Jenny Wilson and Emily Russart finished 1-2 in qualifying for the 100 breast, while
Patterson was fourth overall. Wilson swam a 1:03.74, Russart turned in a 1:04.58 and
Patterson’s time was 1:05.18. Three more Wildcats made the consolation final after
Hannah Points swam a 1:06.84 to take 10th followed by Katie McCullough (1:07.43) in
14th and Hall (1:07.49) in 15th. Goss picked up a bonus final swim after a 1:08.55.

Engstrom was second overall in the 100 back in the morning with a 57.30 to earn a
championship heat berth, as did Eschenburg following a seventh-place preliminary
time of 58.50. Erin Reilly missed out on the `A’ final by a mere .08 of a second,
earning the top spot in the consolation final with a 58.69. Grigg took 11th in the
preliminary heats of the 100 back with a 59.08 while both Fenn (1:00.51) and Powell
(1:00.61) earned bonus final lanes.

Finals portion of Saturday’s action:

Engstrom, Russart, Kraus and Reynolds won the 200 medley relay in 1:44.15 to get
Saturday night underway in a big way for the `Cats. Also setting the tone for the
second-straight night on the diving boards were the Lenz sisters, who swept top
honors in the 3-meter springboard event. For the first time this year in the event,
freshman Cosima Lenz (275.50) topped her sophomore sister, Felicitas Lenz (259.95),
to win the 3-meter board.

In the individual swimming finals, Points captured second place to lead NU in the
400 IM with a 4:21.02, an incredible 7.81 second drop from her prelim time in the
event. Patterson was third in 4:23.23, Soderholm took fourth in 4:23.59, Godbe was
fifth with a 4:24.35 and Fenn came in seventh in 4:31.27.

Goss rose from 12th to ninth after winning the consolation final in 4:25.91, a
more-than eight second cut in her time from the morning.

Kraus further lowered her 100 fly time another half a second in the finals to win in
55.42 while Cavanaugh was third in 56.55 and Hall too fifth in 57.26. Eschenburg won
the consolation heat with a 57.45 while Johnson was 14th overall in 58.89 and
Reynolds was 15th in 59.17.

King cut 1.34 seconds off her 100 fly morning time to take 18th overall with a 58.05
in the bonus final.

Freshman Powell earned the first NCAA `B’ consideration time of her career and of
her class Saturday night with a winning time of 1:48.52 in the 200 free. Powell cut
nearly 4.5 seconds off her morning time and won the championship heat by more than
two full seconds. Grigg went a little slower in the evening session with a 1:50.99,
but still took third overall.

King ran away from the rest of the field in the consolation final with a 1:50.72,
finishing almost three seconds ahead of teammate Loe’s 10th-place overall time of
1:53.60. Walls scored a pair of points for NU with a 1:56.91 to take 15th. Sosdian
put on a show in the bonus final, cutting over five seconds from her prelim time to
swim a heat-winning 1:51.22, four seconds better than her nearest competitor in the
race.

Wilson went wire-to-wire to win the 100 breast in 1:03.50 while Russart was fourth
with a 1:04.53 and Patterson tied for seventh in 1:05.58. Points’ 1:06.41 was good
for 10th overall in the consolation final. Hall’s 1:07.08 and McCullough’s 1:07.33
earned the pair 14th and 15th overall, respectively.

Engstrom remained second overall at night in the 100 back with a 56.88 while
Eschenburg swam a 58.81 to take seventh overall. Reilly stayed true to her top seed
in the consolation final to win the heat in 58.27 Saturday night. Fenn won the bonus
final with a 59.74.

Northwestern ended the evening with an exclamation point, swimming an NCAA `B’ time
of 7:20.42 to win the 800 free relay by nearly 13 full seconds over the next nearest
entry. The team of Powell, King, Sosdian and Grigg accomplished the feat.

The above article is a press release submitted to Swimming World Magazine. It has been posted in its entirety without editing. Swimming World offers all outlets the chance to reach our audience by contacting us at Newsmaster@swimmingworldmagazine.com. However, Swimming World reserves the right to choose what material is posted.

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