No. 8 Northwestern Conquers No. 16 Notre Dame

SOUTH BEND, Indiana, January 20. THE No. 8 Northwestern ran its dual-meet record to a perfect 6-0 on the season Saturday with a 167-131 win at No. 16 Notre Dame.

The Wildcats now have defeated five ranked opponents this year after besting then-No. 12 Indiana and then-No. 18 Purdue in dual meets while topping No. 3 California and No. 10 Florida State last weekend at the Dallas Morning News Swimming & Diving Classic.

Saturday began with a 400 medley relay win for Northwestern, with the quartet of Matt Grevers (Lake Forest, Ill./Lake Forest), John Franklin (Fort Lauderdale, Fla./North Broward Prep), Kyle Bubolz (Waukesha, Wis./Waukesha North) and Bruno Barbic (Zagreb, Croatia/V. Gymnazija) swimming a 3:19.52 to win.

Junior Daniel Walls (Tucson, Ariz./Sabino) was the Wildcats' top finisher in the 1,650 free, turning in a 15:53.89 to take third.

Sophomore Eric Nilsson (Weston, Mass./Weston) then won the 200 free with a 1:38.59 before Bubolz won the 100 back with a 50.04. Freshman Jake Vogel (Canton, Ill./Canton) was third in the 100 back with a 51.02.

Franklin outdueled ND's Sam Pendergast to win the 100 breast by .25 seconds with a 56.47. Alex Hostoffer (Cleveland, Ohio/Gilmour Academy) took third in the event with a 57.17.

Nilsson won his second event of the meet with a 1:48.99 to win the 200 fly. Teammate Bryan Pinkston (Richmond, Va./St. Christopher's) was third with a 1:52.58.

In the 50 free, Grevers swam a 20.47 to win while Barbic was second with a 20.95. During the first diving break, junior Ryan McIntosh (Louisville, Ky./Trinity) took second with a score of 312.37 on the 1-meter board.

Barbic came out of the break to win the 100 free with a 45.58 before Grevers and Adam Beckman (Kearney, Neb./Kearney) went 1-2 in the 200 back. Grevers swam a 1:49.54 and Beckman had a 1:51.31.

Franklin then won the 200 breast with a 2:03.94, with Hostoffer again finishing third with a time of 2:05.27.

Nilsson's third event win came in the 500 free with a 4:28.85, followed by Bubolz's second victory of the meet in the 100 fly, where he swam a 49.72.

Notre Dame swept the top three spots on the 3-meter board during the second diving break, then Grevers came out and went ballastic in the 200 IM. The senior swam an NCAA 'A' cut of 1:45.12 to win by more than 10 seconds and come within .03 seconds of breaking teammate Mike Alexandrov's (Champaign, Ill./Centennial) school record in the event.

Vogel was second in the event with a 1:55.65.

Nilsson, Barbic, Jimmy Sourbeer (Des Moines, Iowa/Dowling Catholic) and Bubolz then won the 400 free relay in 3:01.91 to conclude the meet.

The Wildcats return to action at 5 p.m. Friday, Jan. 26, in a tri-meet at Ohio State with Michigan.

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