Feb. 16, 2007
COLUMBUS, Ohio - Day by day the Purdue men's swimming and diving team keeps getting better as evidenced by a slew of personal records set during the first day of competition at the Big Ten Championships.
"I'd say about 90-percent of our times were lifetime bests," said men's head coach Dan Ross. "We swam really well, but this has been an unbelievably fast meet - one of the fastest meets in the country by far."
The best performances of the day were recorded by Romain Maire in the 200 individual medley and Eddie Kenney in the 50 freestyle.
Maire posted a lifetime best of 1:46.31 in the prelims of the 200 IM during prelims, just missing the NCAA automatic qualifying mark of 1:46.09 by .22 seconds. The Dijon, France native placed third overall during finals at 1:46.65.
Kenney reached his first consolation final as a Boilermaker after recording a personal record of 20.41 in the 50 free to place 16th in prelims. He went on to lower that mark two more times during finals, clocking a 20.28 on the first leg of the 200 free relay and a 20.23 during consolations.
Kenney's finals mark tied him for 10th with Wisconsin's Kyle Sorensen.
Boilermaker freshman Ilia Ayzenshtok registered the team's final p.r. of the night with a 100-yard backstroke leadoff split of 49.04 as part of the 400 medley relay.
Both of Purdue's relays tonight placed seventh. The 200 free relay of Kenney, John Mullen, John Schmitt and Trey Smith completed its course in 1:20.38, and the 400 medley relay of Ayzenshtok, Aaron Koger, Jon Ranochak and Schmitt finished in 3:14.90.
Ross said the 200 free relay was the teams fastest since 1998 when Frank Smardo, David Weis, Kirk Larsen and Mike Ullom recorded a varsity record of 1:19.50.
In the 400 medley relay, Ross was impressed with Koger's breaststroke split of 53.61, which was the third fastest of the race.
During Friday's prelims, personal records were also record by Andre Koop in the 200 IM (1:51.76), Smith and Mullen in the 50 free (20.51; 20.59), as well as four of six entrants in the 500 free.
All four Boilermaker divers scored off the 1-meter springboard led by Danny Cox's fifth-place total of 323.85 points; Zach Schultz finished one-place behind his freshman teammate with 316.65 points.
Purdue rookies J.P. Perez and Kyle Mitrione boosted the team's scoring effort with 12th and 16th-place tallies of 274.45 and 260.90 points.
"The guys exceeded my expectations, we had a great first day," said diving coach Adam Soldati. "It's good to see this program, which is so young, begin to take off. This base of divers we have in place will definitely carry on our tradition of great diving."
The Boilermakers currently sit in sixth place with 103.5 points, 27.5 points behind Indiana for fifth. Championship host Ohio State leads with 186 points, Minnesota is second with 173 points and Michigan is third with 172 points.
The Buckeyes' lead was built on the strength of their divers, who scored 67 points off the 1-meter. Last year in this event, only Kellen Harkness reached the top eight for OSU.
In another reversal of fortune, Taylor Roberts was the only Hoosier to score off the 1-meter. Indiana has historically dominated the diving competitions at the Big Ten's; last season Brian Mariano was named Co-Diver of the Year and Diver of the Championships.
"Big Ten diving keeps getting tougher year-to-year, and it wouldn't surprise me to see the days of getting three or four divers (from one school) in the top eight begin to disappear," said Soldati. "There are just too many good teams and great facilities to choose from."
Competition at the Big Ten Championships resumes Saturday at noon with prelims. Finals begin at 7 p.m.