Nov. 5, 2006
Nov. 4, 2006
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Saturday's duals with Northwestern both came down to the last relay. The women survived with a 153.5 - 146.5 victory, while the men found themselves on the losing end of a 153-147 decision.
The Wildcat women needed a first and third showing in the meet ending 400 free relay, but instead finished first and fourth.
The Boilermaker 'A' relay of Kimbre Vogel, Rachel Sitarz, Shannon Grace and Katharine Telfer was the runner-up in 3:31.43 and its 'B' relay of Leah Henninger, Erin Gettings, Christina Lapinskas and Carlene Takaki was third in 3:33.37.
The Norhtwestern 'B' relay was close behind in fourth with a mark of 3:34.29.
"Today's meet was so much better than yesterday at Notre Dame," said women's head coach Cathy Wright-Eger. "We were tougher. We battled the entire time and collected a lot of those important fifth-place points that helped decide this meet."
Dan Ross' men's team was able to keep up with No. 8 Northwestern for most of the meet, but just didn't have enough horsepower at the end. The 200 free relay team of Eddie Kenney, John Schmitt, Craig Thompson and John Mullen finished two seconds off the lead with a time of 1:24.21.
Despite suffering two close losses this weekend to nationally ranked opponents, the longtime head coach was pleased with the overall effort.
"Our seniors did a heck of a job stepping up today," said Ross. "Steve Miskovetz had some good times in the breaststroke and Graham Malmgren put together some season bests in the distance races. We battled hard and I think we should be seasoned and ready to go against Georgia next weekend."
The women's team started the meet on a positive note, winning the 400 medley relay in 3:47.08. Telfer, Jennier Lavers, Takaki and Susan Hentschel combined for the victory, which Wright-Eger noted was an unexpected surprised.
Telfer and Takaki also scored individual wins. Telfer won the 100 back in 57.83 and Takaki again swept the butterfly events with NCAA provisional qualifying times of 55.11 and 2:01.25.
Purdue made use of its depth in the 200 fly as Lauren Hyman and Christine Inman captured the thrid and fourth-place points.
Another stunner was freshman Leah Pierce's win over NU's Haley Fry in the 200 breaststroke, 2:20.34 to 2:20.39. Lavers provided an extra punch with her third-place mark of 2:21.43.
Both sets of divers regrouped from yesterday and dominated the springboards. The women swept the top-three spots with Amanda Miller leading the way with first-place scores of 332.33 points and 331.05 points.
Steve LoBue won the men's 3-meter title with an astronomical point total of 377.33, beating the rest of the field by well over 30 points. LoBue placed second to teammate Zach Scultz on the 1-meter, 344.25 to 326.10.
For the second straight night, the breaststroke duo of Aaron Koger and Jin-Soo Kim exchanged wins. Koger beat Kim in the 100 breast, 56.15 to 55.98, and Kim returned the favor in the 200 breast, 2:03.38 to 2:03.65.
Romain Maire also scored a quality win beating NCAA All-American Kyle Bubolz in the 100 back, 50.64 to 50.79.
Next weekend, the women's team is off while the men play host to the Purdue Duals, which features Georgia, Penn State, Louisville and Utah. The meet will run from Nov. 10 to 11 with start times of 6 p.m. and noon.