Feb. 4, 2006
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - No. 14 Purdue (5-6) finished its 2005-06 regular season with a 134-108 loss to No. 11 Indiana (7-3) Saturday morning at the Counsilman-Billingsley Aquatic Center.
"We got beat by the better team," said head coach Dan Ross. "I thought we competed well, but our times weren't that great. However, our divers did an excellent job."
Purdue's next competition is the Big Ten Championships, which also will be held at IU, Feb. 23 to 25. Ross said he hopes to finish among the top four.
Junior Steven LoBue was the Boilermakers' MVP, winning both the 3-meter and platform competitions. LoBue won the tower with 314.40 points and took first off the springboard with 342.38 points.
LoBue's teammates had a tough time scoring insurance points as IU's Ryan Fagan and Jesse Rappaport intercepted the second and third-place scores in both competitions.
The Hoosiers also were less than generous in the pool, winning all but two races. Purdue's first win was scored by Romain Maire in the 200 backstroke, beating Ben Hensen, 1:49.56 to 1:49.85.
Purdue picked up its second win in the 200 breaststroke as Giordan Pogioli (1:59.13) and Jin-Soo Kim (2:01.79) finished first and second over IU's Kevin Swander, who placed third in 2:01.83.
Kim's second-place mark was a season best by more than a second.