The men’s swimming and diving team looks to hit the .500 mark and continue a strong January when Notre Dame (5-6) heads to Evanston, Ill., tomorrow afternoon to face off against No. 15 Northwestern (5-2) at 2 p.m.”They’re the highest-ranked team we’ve played this year and are filled with excellent frontline swimmers, but they’re not as deep as we are,” Irish coach Tim Welsh said. “We want to limit their stars to as few points as possible and swim tough in our last test on the road before the Big East Championships.”Last weekend, the Irish dropped a 228-123 decision against No. 17 Pittsburgh, but came away with a pair of victories against Maryland and Villanova, 201-140 and 282-51, respectively, in a quadrangular meet at Pittsburgh. Setting the tone for the meet, junior David Moison, sophomore Jaime Lutkus and freshman Ted Brown swept the top three spots in the 400-meter individual medley and freshman Tim Kegelman kicked in a first-place finish in the 100-yard butterfly to provide the Irish with a sufficient cushion between themselves and both the Terrapins and Wildcats at the end of the first day.Kegelman continued his heroics on Saturday, winning the 200-yard butterfly and thereby claiming his second event victory in as many days. In addition, Brown won the 500-yard freestyle, Lutkus placed second in the 200-yard individual medley and the 400-yard medley relay team (Kegelman, sophomores Doug Bauman and Tim Randolph and junior Frank Krakowski) also took second as the Irish boosted their dual meet record to 5-6, including a stellar 4-1 in 2004.”I’m very pleased {with the meet’s results} from both a pure speed and a depth point of view,” Welsh said.Welsh recently announced the signing of the first three members of the squad’s 2008 class, including Graham Parker of Cherry Hill, N.J., Rob Seery of Garden City, N.Y. and Jay VandenBerg of Beverly Hills, Mich.Parker owns a trio of New Jersey state championships (200 medley relay, 200 individual medley relay and the 400 freestyle relay) while Seery has garnered All-America honors in both the 200 and 500 freestyle and VandenBerg has recorded national qualifying times in the 800, 1,500 and 1,600 freestyle.”They will strengthen our distance freestyle group and give us more flexibility in distance events,” Welsh said. “They make us more versatile, which should help a bunch.”The Irish return to action next Saturday when they host St. Bonaventure at the Rolfs Aquatic Center.