Jan. 19, 2007

NOTRE DAME, Ind. - A battle of two top-20 teams will take place in the Rolfs Aquatic Center on Saturday afternoon as No. 8 Northwestern visits No. 16 Notre Dame for a men's swimming and diving dual meet slated for 2:00 p.m. (ET). The Fighting Irish are 8-0 on the season, the program's best start since the 1974-75 campaign. The Wildcats also are undefeated in dual meet action this season.

This will mark the 22nd meeting all-time between the two schools, with Northwestern holding a 14-7 advantage in the series. The Wildcats won last season's encounter 172-128 in Evanston, Ill. Northwestern was ranked 17th at the time and Notre Dame was 19th.

The Fighting Irish added four wins to its record last weekend. Notre Dame downed Oakland 181-119 on Friday in Rochester, Mich. before traveling to Cleveland for a quad meet with Cleveland State, Duquesne and Xavier. A dominating performance by the Fighting Irish led to victories over all three teams.

Key performers for the Irish at Oakland were freshmen swimmers John Lytle (Clearfield, Pa./Clearfield Area) and Ross Moore (Champaign, Ill./Champaign Central) along with sophomore diver Michael Bulfin (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla./St. Thomas Aquinas), who all won two events. Notre Dame won 11 of 16 events during the meet.

Lytle was victorious in the 200-yard and 100-yard freestyle events, while Moore took the 200-yard butterfly and the 200-yard IM. Bulfin claimed wins off both the one and three-meter boards.

At Cleveland State, senior Tim Kegelman (Yorktown, Va./Tabb) and sophomore Jeff Wood (Fairport, N.Y./Fairport/Indiana) both collected individual wins and were part of the victorious 200-yard medley relay. Kegelman took first in the 100-yard butterfly, while Wood won the 500-yard free. In all, Notre Dame captured six of the 13 events en route to defeating Cleveland State 152-91, Duquesne 156-41 and Xavier 168-29.

The Wildcats sent their top eight swimmers and a diver to Dallas last weekend, defeating a pair of top-10 ranked foes and setting 10 meet and pool records in the process at the Dallas Morning News Classic. Senior Mike Alexandrov was named Most Outstanding Swimmer of the Meet after breaking six meet and pool records as the Wildcats topped No. 3 California and No. 10 Florida State.

Alexandrov was named Big Ten Swimmer of the Week, while senior Matt Grevers set multiple meet and pool records in addition to a Northwestern school record in the 200 free to earn CollegeSwimming.com and Swimming World Magazine National Collegiate Swimmer of the Week honors. The remainder of the Northwestern squad traveled to Carthage to defeat the Red Men in a dual meet.

For a full recap and results of Saturday's meet, log onto und.com.

After the showdown against Northwestern, the Irish will return to the pool when they host the Shamrock Dual Meet Invitational next Friday and Saturday (Jan. 26 &27) in the Rolfs Aquatic Center.

Order of Events
1.  400-Yard Medley Relay
2.  1,650-Yard Freestyle
3.  200-Yard Freestyle
4.  100-Yard Backstroke
5.  100-Yard Breaststroke
6.  200-Yard Butterfly
7.  50-Yard Freestyle
8.  1-Meter Diving
9.  100-Yard Freestyle
10. 200-Yard Backstroke
11. 200-Yard Breaststroke
12. 500-Yard Freestyle
13. 100-Yard Butterfly
14. 3-Meter Diving
15. 200-Yard IM
16. 400-Yard Freestyle Relay
Scoring:
Relays: 11-4-2-0
Individual Events: 9-4-3-2-1-0
Points Needed to Win: 151