March 26, 2009
COLLEGE STATION, Texas - The Purdue men's swimming and diving team, led by a second-place finish from David Boudia, scored 24 points Thursday inside Texas A&M's Student Recreation Center Natatorium in College Station, Texas, and sits in 13th place after day one of the NCAA Swimming & Diving Championships.
"Our goal for the season was a top-12 finish," head coach Dan Ross said. "We felt we needed to have relays and more swimmers here to do that, but right now we are trying to score as many points as we can with our four guys. Today, David Boudia posted the best performance, and it exceeded the highest place since I have been here. I know you have to go at least to 1969 for the last guy who was second. What's really good is I see David has that fire. I think (head diving coach) Adam (Soldati) did a great job. They are happy, but they want more. Maybe for the first time all season, David wasn't able to pull out the win. I think he'll be really focused the next two days because the higher up he goes, with his talent, he can throw in those 80- and 90-point dives."
Boudia, a freshman from Noblesville, Ind., became an All-American in his first NCAA Championship event by finishing second off the 1-meter springboard. The Big Ten champion from all three boards scored 420.80 points in the final. Boudia broke the facility record of 359.65, a mark he put up during the Art Adamson Invitational in November, with his 396.30-point list to win the preliminary round during the afternoon session before having the record broken in the final.
Sophomore David Colturi earned the second honorable mention All-America honor of his career from the 1-meter. The Sylvania, Ohio, native just missed the final as he finished ninth in the preliminary round with his score of 358.10, just 2.55 points out of eighth place. Colturi, who also earned honorable mention All-American status off the 1-meter last year, did compete in the consolation final and finished second, for a 10th-place overall finish, by scoring 374.35 points.
"David Colturi is going to bed with a bad taste in his mouth," Ross said. "He was so close to making the final, and he will come back ready to make up for it."
Junior Kyle Mitrione scored 288.00 points during the preliminaries of the 1-meter competition and finished 26th in his first NCAA Championships competition. Senior Andrew Langenfeld finished 38th in the 50-yard freestyle. Purdue's school-record holder in the event finished the preliminary round in 19.82 seconds.
"Andrew had a bad 50," Ross said. "He did not swim how he is capable. We thought going in his best event was the 100 butterfly, so hopefully he returns tomorrow with the same bad taste. It's a long, long three days, but we are ecstatic to be in 13th after the first day because we know that we can get better. We were close on a couple, and we know Andrew and Kyle can do better."
The national championship meet continues Friday. Langenfeld returns to the pool to swim the 100 butterfly, which is the third event in the afternoon session that begins at 1 p.m. ET, while all three of the Boilermaker divers are entered in the 3-meter. Diving preliminaries are tentatively scheduled for a 2:30 p.m. start. The evening session begins at 8 p.m. Live results, as well as live video courtesy of Swimming World Magazine, can be found at purduesports.com.