Nov. 19, 2004
MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. - The No. 17 Purdue swimming and diving team may want to flip its title to read `diving and swimming', as its aquatic acrobats claimed the top three spots off the 3-meter springboard Friday at the Minnesota Invitational.
Junior Josh Karshen, who is the Big Ten's defending Diver of the Week, led his teammates with a personal record of 528.60. Sophomore Steve LoBue, another weekly conference honoree, was the runner-up with 517.50 points, and senior Clay Davis took third at 515.70. David Hanisch and Bob Hennessy combined for 23 points with their seventh and eighth-place showings.
Carrie McCambridge, Purdue's first diver of the week this season, placed second off the 1-meter springboard with 293.25 points. Iowa senior Lisette Planken earned the top prize with her pool record score of 299.85. Boilermaker sophomore Amanda Miller placed eighth with 253.90 points.
Last week at Northwestern, the men's team's sweeps off the 1- and 3-meter springboard helped the Boilermakers upset the No. 14 Wildcats, 152-148. Diving also played a key role in wins over No. 21 Arizona State and 19th-ranked Texas A&M.
Friday's diving points weren't enough to give Purdue a lead in the team standings, but they did help move the Boilermakers ahead of No. 20 Wisconsin for second place, 269 to 219. Sixth-ranked Minnesota leads the five-team field with 414 points.
Purdue swimming had an excellent night in the pool; however, they were simply outgunned by the Golden Gophers. The Boilermakers succeeded in sending at least two swimmers into each final, and had two relays score in both the 400 medley relay and 200 freestyle relay.
In the opening 200 free relay, Purdue's `A' team of Louis Paul, Trey Smith, Andre Pereira and Iggy Goh scored a fourth-place and season-best time of 1:32.42. Paul and Smith also were part of the third-place 400 medley relay, which recorded a season-best mark of 3:20.11.
Individually, Purdue's best race with the 200 individual medley, where Romain Maire, Paul and Giordan Pogioli claimed the fourth, fifth and seventh places. Maire had an impressive turnaround in the finals, shaving three seconds of his prelim time of 1:53.66 to record a lifetime best of 1:50.14.
Head coach Dan Ross was especially satisfied with the performances of his 500 freestylers, all of whom improved on their prelim times to record season bests. Mark Wolfred posted the team's fastest time of 4:27.06, which earned him sixth place. One of the biggest improvements belonged to freshman Matt Dugan, who went from a prelim time of 4:51.76 to a finals mark of 4:42.82.
Steuart Martens (4:35.42), Eric Prugh (4:38.21) and David Hedge (4:43.25) also scored for the Boilermakers in the long-distance event.
Goh and Smith held their own in the 50 free consolation finals, tying for 14th place at 21.35 seconds.
"I thought the team did a good job of coming back during the night session," said Ross. "We swam a heck of a lot better tonight than we did in the morning, so hopefully we'll continue to build momentum as the meet continues."
Activity at the Minnesota Invitational begins again with prelims at 11 a.m. Saturday's finals kick off at 6 p.m.