Feb. 25, 2005

MINNEAPOLIS -- It was an impressive record-setting day for Northwestern's men's swimming and diving team at the 2005 Big Ten Championships, being held at Minnesota's University Aquatic Center. The Wildcats are in third place after six events.

Led by sophomore Matt Grevers (Lake Forest, Ill./Lake Forest), the Wildcats swept the two relay events, winning the 200-yard freestyle with a Big Ten record and an NCAA-A qualifying time of 1:17.74. Minnesota had held the top Big Ten's top regular-season time with a mark of 1:19.58 before Thursday's record-setting effort by the Wildcats. It was Northwestern's first conference freestyle relay championship since 1933. But with a relay team consisting of two sophomores (Grevers and Mike Alexandrov (Champaign, Ill./Centennial)) and two freshmen (Kyle Bubolz (Waukesha, Wis./Waukesha North) and David Kormushoff (Hinsdale, Ill./Hinsdale Central)), it appears NU will not have a drought that long in the future.

Northwestern also captured the 400-yard medley relay, with Alexandrov providing a "phenomenal" breaststroke performance. The Wildcats, the defending Big Ten champion in the event, won the relay by 15 yards and a Big Ten-record clocking of 3:08.5. Grevers and Bubolz joined Alexandrov and Mike Wever in the four-man event.

In the 50 freestyle, Grevers won the event with a 19.39 effort in the finals. Earlier in the day, he set a Big Ten record with a time of 19.35 -- the second-best 50 time in the nation this year. Bubolz finished second with a time of 19.82 -- an NCAA-B qualifying time.

Other top performances from the Wildcats came from Brian Davis (Issaquah, Wash./Issaquah), who finished fourth in the 500-yard freestyle (4:20.39) and Alexandrov, who placed second, just getting edged out by Purdue's Louis Paul. Alexandrov finished with an NCAA-A time of 1:45.09.

After the first day of competition, Minnesota leads the way with 218 points, followed by Indiana's 205 points on the strength of their five diving finalists. Northwestern sits in third place after a first-day-best three championships on Thursday.

Friday's preliminaries begin at noon. The events on the championships' second day are the 200-yard medley relay, 400-yard individual medley, 100 fly, 200 freestyle, 100-yard breaststroke, 100 back, three-meter diving, and 800-yard freestyle relay.

For complete results, in-depth recaps and photographs, visit 2005 Big Ten Men's Swimming and Diving Championships. Other Championships information can be found at Minnesota Golden Gopher Sports.