November 30, 2006

Men’s soccer, swimming, football highlight fall sports season

Men’s soccer makes historic NCAA run

Northwestern’s historic run through the NCAA tournament ended last weekend with a 3-2 loss to the California, Santa Barbara Gauchos in the national quarterfinals. The Wildcats, who advanced deeper than any team in program history, finished 14-8 and one win shy of reaching the College Cup. Seniors Brad North and Gerardo Alvarez each finished their careers by netting a goal in the match at Harder Stadium in Santa Barbara. Northwestern, the last Big Ten team playing, reached the quarterfinals by defeating North Carolina, Greensboro 2-1 at the Thomas Athletic Complex.

Records fall as swim teams dominate TYR

Four Norris Aquatics Center pool records fell as No. 9 the Northwestern men took first-place at the TYR Invitational, a four-team event including Michigan State, Southern Illinois and Kenyon College. After breaking pool records in the 100 free, 200 back and 400 free relay, senior Matt Grevers was named Swimmer of the Meet.

On the women’s side, Northwestern won every event and broke a Norris Aquatics Center pool record on the way to winning the meet. Freshmen Kassia Shishkoff and Mary Beth Francis began the finals with a 1-2 finish in the championship heat of the 1,650 free. Shishkoff missed the pool record by just four seconds, swimming an NCAA ‘B’ standard of 16:37.87. Francis finished in 16:53.38.

Football finishes on high note after beating Illinois for fourth consecutive time

Tyrell Sutton ran for 110 yards and Northwestern closed its season with a 27-16 victory over Illinois on Saturday to secure an eighth-place finish (tied with Iowa) in the Big Ten Conference. It was the 100th meeting between the two programs and the Northwestern win cut the Illinois overall series advantage to 51-44-5. The Wildcats won their fourth straight against the Fighting Illini, their longest series win streak since 1950. Sutton finished with 1,000 yards after rushing for 1,474 as a freshman last season.