Wisconsin Holds Off Northwestern Men

The Wisconsin men’s swimming and diving team jumped ahead early with a relay win and then held off a charge by Northwestern by winning another to secure a 153-144 win over the Wildcats in a Big Ten Conference dual meet Friday.
 
The Badgers scored their second-consecutive win over the Wildcats after Northwestern had won four straight in the series from 2004 to 2007. The victory also gave UW its first Big Ten victory of the season and improved the Badgers to 2-4 overall in dual meets.
 
A win to start the night in the 200-yard medley relay gave the Badgers an early lead, and a victory in the 400-yard freestyle relay gave them the lead for good.
 
After the foursome of Derrick O’Donnell, Eric Johnson, Chuck Allison and Phil Davies clocked a time of 1:32.32 to win the 200 medley relay, the Badgers led for most of the meet. The Wildcats rallied, however, to tie the score at 140-140 with one event remaining.
 
That race, the 400 free relay, also went the Badgers’ way, as Wes Lagerhausen, Chris Nemeth, Conner Andrews and Davies combined to claim the win in 3:02.37 and secure the meet victory in the process.
 
The relay victories were two of the eight recorded on the night by the Badgers, including four contributed to by Davies.
 
The senior also claimed victory in the 50-yard freestyle, with a season-best time of 21.22 seconds, and in the 100 free in a season-best 46.14.
 
O’Donnell also scored a pair of individual event wins, taking the 100-yard backstroke in 51.31 and claiming a narrow win in the 200 back with a time of 1:52.22.
 
UW’s other wins came on the springboard, with junior Al Morrison scoring 315.08 in the 3-meter diving competition – his second-best mark of the year – to claim top honors ahead of teammate Caleb Percevecz’s mark of 307.20.
 
On the 1-meter board, Percevecz came out on top with a score of 320.33 to hold off freshman teammate Michael Ross and his mark of 313.35.
 
The Badgers’ swimmers will now have three weeks to prepare for their next competition, the Texas Invitational, which is set for Dec. 4-6. UW’s divers, however, return to action next weekend in the Arizona Diving Invitational in Tucson, Ariz.




Trailing heavily entering the latter stages of Friday evening's meet against Wisconsin's men at the Norris Aquatics Center, Northwestern staged a monster comeback to even the score entering the final relay, but the Badgers came out on top in that race to defeat the Wildcats, 153-144.

Northwestern finished second in the 200 medley relay to start the meet, getting a 1:33.77 from Jan Hanulik (Cavisov, Czech Republic/Sportovni Gymnazium), Nathan Butler (Cincinnati, Ohio/Turpin), Chris Doman (Pittsburgh, Pa./St. Charles Prep (Columbus, Ohio)) and Brian Kerr (East Grand Rapids, Mich./East Grand Rapids).

Charlie Rimkus (Tustin, Calif./Beckman), Peter Park (Princeton, N.J./Peddie School) and Tony Mattar (Lake Orion, Mich./Lake Orion) swept the top three positions in the 1,000 free for the Wildcats in the first individual race of the evening. Rimkus' winning time was 9:34.13, while the NU sweep gave the hosts an early 20-15 lead in the meet.

John Frutiger (Alma, Mich./Alma) held off a hard-charging Badger to win the 200 free in 1:41.43, followed by Hanulik in third place. Wisconsin took the top two spots in the 100 back with Varun Shivakumar (Hoffman Estates, Ill./Fremd) earning third with a 52.82 as NU's best finisher.

Alex Tyler (Birmingham, Mich./Birmingham Groves) remained undefeated on the year in breaststroke events with a win in the 100 breast, swimming a season-best 57.06. Butler took third for NU also with a season-best time, turning in a 57.85. Also remaining undefeated on the year was Sean Mathews (St. Louis, Mo./Lafayette), whose time of 1:49.93 in the 200 fly led a 1-2 Wildcats' sweep of the event along with Rimkus (1:52.66).

Kerr was Northwestern's top finisher in the 50 free heading into the first break, coming in third with a 21.31. During the first swimming portion of the meet, Kalister Harmon (Olympia, Wash./Capital) took third on the 3-meter springboard with a 304.28.

Wisconsin won the 100 free coming out of the break, but Mathews (46.36) and Kerr (46.65) came in second and third, respectively, for NU. The next event went the exact same way with the Badgers winning the 200 back and Hanulik (1:52.26) and Shivakumar (1:52.41) placing second and third. The race was a three-way heat to very end with Wisconsin's swimmer out-touching Hanulik by a mere .04 of a second.

Northwestern scored big points in the 200 breast, getting Tyler's second win of the day in a time of 2:06.27. He was followed by Butler in third with a 2:08.00 and Jay Calhoun (Palos Verdes Peninsula, Calif./Palos Verdes Peninsula) in fourth with a 2:11.97.

Rimkus ran away from the field to win the 500 free with a 4:35.25, nearly five full seconds faster than Wisconsin's second-place swimmer. Mathews then reeled in Wisconsin's Chuck Allison for a .28 of a second win in the 100 fly, leading a 1-3-4 charge finish for the 'Cats. Mathews trailed by .55 of a second after 50 yards, but leapt ahead with a 25.85 final split to win the event. Bryan Pinkston (Richmond, Va./St. Christopher's) was third and Doman fourth for NU.

With NU trailing entering the final individual event, Tyler and Park swept the top two spots in the 400 IM to pull the Wildcats dead even with the Badgers, 140-140, entering the final relay. Tyler swam a 4:03.80 while Park had a 4:04.36 to best the nearest Wisconsin swimmer by 1.64 seconds.

In the final relay, the 400 free, Mathews gave NU a slight edge on the first leg before Kerr maintained it at the halfway point. Wisconsin's Connor Andrews hit the water hard in the third leg to reverse the margin and the Wildcats were unable to chase down the leader, falling 3:02.37 to 3:03.53.

Wisconsin swept the top scoring spots in the 1-meter diving event during the second half of the swimming program.

Northwestern returns to action at 1 p.m. tomorrow, Saturday, Nov. 14, against Illinois-Chicago at the Norris Aquatics Center.