This weekend the Irish face their final competition of the regular season. Notre Dame travels to Evanston, Ill., today for the Northwestern Invitational, where it will face Northwestern, Missouri State and No. 20 Iowa.
"This upcoming meet is one last chance to race before conference," senior Chris Johnson said.
The Irish enter this weekend having lost for the first time this season as Harvard topped them 264-100 at the Shamrock Invitational on Saturday. Notre Dame earned a split, however, when they topped Towson 279-69.
The Northwestern Invitational serves as the last preparation before the Big East championships, which begin Feb. 27. As the defending champions, the Irish have been looking forward to the meet all season. The Invitational will allow the squad to see where final adjustments need to be made.
Northwestern is 1-1 this season, coming most recently off a 161-122 loss at Iowa, another team the Irish will face this weekend. Freshman Jordan Wilimovsky has led the squad throughout this season, winning the 1,000-yard freestyle at Iowa with a time of 9:27.14. Senior Charlie Rimkus has also played a large role in the team's success, coming just one-hundredth of a second shy of first place in the 200-yard butterfly at Iowa.
Northwestern's strongest event at Iowa was the 50-yard freestyle, in which Wildcats earned four of the top five spots. On the diving side, junior Nick Pinkerton won the one-meter dive at Iowa with 285.00 points.
Prior to the Hawkeyes' win against Northwestern, Iowa had back-to-back losses against No. 8 Indiana and No. 10 Ohio State. Iowa brings a wide range of talent to the meet, especially in the 100-yard freestyle and 100-yard breaststroke. The Hawkeyes finished with three swimmers in the top three in both events against Northwestern, led by senior Jordan Huff's 45.18-seconds finish in the freestyle and sophomore Korey Schneider's 55.07-second time in the breaststroke. On the board, freshman Addison Boschult posted a personal best in both the one- and three-meter dives with 325.13 and 341.78 points, respectively.
Missouri State (3-1) enters the meet off a 119-85 win at Missouri S&T last weekend. The Bears broke four pool records in the meet, highlighted by strong performances from sophomores Caleb Schuermann and Isaac McKnight. Schuermann won the 1,000-yard freestyle in 9:41.08 and McKnight took the 200-yard freestyle in 1:43.93. The squad took the top three finishes in the 400-yard individual medley and the 100-yard backstroke.
The Irish sit at 6-1 with a deep roster of outstanding upperclassmen in many events. Johnson most recently earned an NCAA 'B' qualifying time, pool record and first place in the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 54.17 seconds. Sophomore Zachary Stephens also earned an NCAA 'B' qualifier in the 200-yard breaststroke, clocking in at 1:59.65 to win the event at the Shamrock Invitational. Sophomore Kevin Hughes won the 500-yard freestyle in 4:31.85 and sophomore Nick Nemetz took second in the one-meter dive with 328.20 points.
The quad-dual meet will begin at 6 p.m. Friday and will continue Saturday at 11 a.m in Evanston, Ill.
Contact Megan Finneran at mfinnera@nd.edu
