Nov. 17, 2006
COLUMBUS, Ohio - No. 14 Ohio State proved worthy of their ranking Friday night with a 171-129 win over No. 18 Purdue at the McCorkle Aquatic Center. The loss dropped the Boilermakers to 4-4 on the season, while OSU improved to 3-0.
"We got touched out in a few races and had a few woulda, shoulda, coulda situations, but Ohio State is a quality team and earned this victory," said head coach Dan Ross. "The guys are still achieving their goals. We did get better this week and there's a lot of personal and season bests to show for it."
In spite of the lopsided score, Purdue won several events and came close to winning two others. The 200 medley relay of Joe Colley, Aaron Koger, Jon Ranochak and Eddie Kenney were beat to the wall by .10 seconds, 1:30.89 to 1:30.99. In the 200 free, sophomore John Schmitt was edged by OSU senior captain Joe Doyle by .05 seconds, 1:40 to 1:40.05.
Koger led Purdue with two individual victories. The freshman kept his undefeated streak alive in the 100 breast with a personal best and NCAA provisional cut of 54.85 and was tops in the 200 breast with a mark of 2:01.24. Junior Jin-Soo Kim placed right behind his teammate with times of 57.07 and 2:02.54.
The Boilermakers also swept the fly events. Ranochak won the 100 in 49.21 and rookie Sam Wilcher touched first in the 200 at 1:49.52. Wilcher was third in the 100 fly with his time of 50.16.
Romain Maire scored a bulk of points for Purdue, as well. The junior Frenchman won the 200 IM in 1:52.07, and earned runner-up honors in the 100 and 200 back.
The divers received a bit of their own medicine as Ohio State's Kellen Harkness and Ryan Jefferson broke into the top three. The Buckeye tandem finished 1-2 off the 3-meter and were second and third off the 1-meter behind sophomore Zach Schultz, who beat Harkness, 326.77 to 326.17.
Purdue is off from competition Thanksgiving weekend, but returns to action beginning Nov. 30 for the start of the three-day U.S. Open, which will take place at the Boilermaker Aquatic Center.