Jan. 20, 2007
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - The Boilermakers men's and women's swimming and diving teams find themselves right in the middle following the first day of competition at the Big Ten Triangular with Minnesota and host Wisconsin.
Through 22 events, the Purdue men are up on Wisconsin 138.5-66.5, but trail Minnesota, 117-88.
The Boilermaker women lead the Golden Gophers 111-94, but are behind the Badgers, 119-86.
Men's head coach Dan Ross said he was pleasantly surprised by the results, and for good reason. Romain Maire won two events: the 200 free and 200 IM, and came within a second of pushing the 800 free relay to victory with an anchor leg split of 1:39.94.
Maire's winning times in 200 free and IM were 1:39.84 and 1:50.09. John Schmitt was second to Maire in the 200 free at 1:40.36 and swam leadoff for the 800 free relay with a split of 1:39.73.
As always seems to be the case, the divers scored a bulk of the points on both sides. Senior Amanda Miller earned her second springboard sweep in as many weeks with a 1-meter score of 289.90 and a 3-meter total of 374.60 points.
Zach Schultz and Danny Cox swapped victories. Schultz took first off the 1-meter with 377.45 points and Cox was tops off the 3-meter with 307.65 points. Freshman Kyle Mitrione became the latest Boilermaker diver to qualify for NCAA Zones with his 1-meter total of 305.00 points.
In addition to Miller, the women's team also received a win from senior Carlene Takaki in the 200 fly (2:01.48) and claimed the second through fourth-place points in the 100 breast. Leah Pierce posted the Boilermakers best time at 1:04.43 and was followed by Jennifer Lavers and Shannon Grace.
The Big Ten Triangular resumes Saturday at Noon CT.