Nov. 22, 2009
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - The 16th-ranked Purdue men's swimming and diving team wrapped up the Purdue Invitational on Sunday with a third-place finish after scoring 792.5 points during the three-day meet held inside the Boilermaker Aquatic Center.
"We had a good weekend," head coach Dan Ross said. "But, the guys have to learn that when they are tired and they're not suited and the cosmic tumbler is not in the right place, you have to find a way to get it done. I think we have now realized that, and I think this was a really good lesson for us to figure out what we're going to need to do to compete at the Big Ten level. Our goal is to get a little bit better so we are ready for the Big Ten meet. You would always like to be a little bit better, but you have to save some bumps for the end of the season."
The Boilermakers qualified all eight swimmers in the 200-yard backstroke for the evening session. Senior Andre Koop led the way with his seventh-place finish in 1:52.02 after qualifying with a season-best time of 1:51.78. Junior Mark Boman finished 11th with his second season-best time of the day. He finished the final in 1:52.60 after qualifying with a then-season-best time of 1:53.04. Freshman Andrew Starr finished 13th in 1:53.02 after he stopped the clock in 1:54.42 to grab his qualifying spot, and sophomore Tyler Gertz was next to finish with his 1:54.24 time after qualifying in 1:54.78.
Junior Matt Stewart won the `C' final in 1:52.10 after qualifying in 1:56.02 in his first 200 backstroke of the season. Classmate Chris Pfaff turned in a season-best time of 1:53.24 while finishing 18th in the final following his 1:56.30 clocking in the morning session. Sophomore Zach Johnson and freshman Sam Niesen also qualified for the `C' final after touching the wall in 1:58.76 and 2:01.93, respectively, in their first attempts at that race this season but neither swam in the evening session.
All four Boilermaker divers finished in the top five of the platform competition. Junior J.P. Perez moved to third on Purdue's all-time performance list in the event with his score of 430.55 that placed second. Classmate David Colturi grabbed third with his score of 399.50. He was followed by freshman Jimmy Page, who scored 341.50 points to move to ninth on the all-time performance list, and senior Kyle Mitrione, who totaled 292.70 points.
Seven Boilermakers qualified for the evening session in the 200 butterfly. Senior Sam Wilcher won the `B' final in a season-best and NCAA provisional-qualifying time of 1:47.57. He was followed by sophomore Brendan Joyce in 13th with his 1:54.39 time after finishing his first 200 butterfly of the season in 1:54.29 in the morning session. Junior Ryan Dafforn scored in 15th place with his 1:55.11 swim following a 1:54.66 time in qualifying. Freshman Alec LaMothe swam a season-best time of 1:54.46 to qualify for the final, where he finished 16th after touching the wall in 1:55.13.
Sophomore Zach Johnson claimed the 200 butterfly `C' final with his 1:55.89 clocking. Freshmen Vinny Donnelly and Ray Mahon were 18th and 23rd, respectively, in the final with times of 1:56.29 and 2:00.46. Mahon completed the preliminary swim in 1:58.85 to nail down his spot in the evening race.
The Boilermakers also grabbed seven scoring spots in the longest race on the docket, the 1,650 freestyle. Junior Drew Wolfred led the way with his fourth-place, 15:49.23 swim and was followed by Donnelly in fifth with a 15:52.28 clocking. Stewart touched the wall in 15:55.72 for seventh, and Starr scored in eighth after stopping the clock in 15:56.34.
LaMothe was the next Purdue finisher as he touched the wall in 16:14.64 for 12th place. He was followed by senior Travis Smith's 16:25.75 time that placed 13th and Mahon's 15th-place, 16:33.63 finish. Sophomore Logan Wetzel and freshman Sebastian Aube just missed out on the scoring as they placed 17th and 19th, respectively, in 16:43.42 and 17:30.69.
Sophomore Ben Wachtel finished sixth in the 100 freestyle with his 45.79 time in the final. He qualified for the `A' final with a season-best 45.54 swim in the morning session. Senior A.J. Boeh also logged a season-best time in the qualifying swim as he touched the wall in 46.43 and then finished 11th with his 46.65 time in the final. Senior Gage Barry tied for 12th after stopping the clock in 46.75, and freshman Corey Bandura scored in 15th with his 47.55 time following a 47.01 swim in qualifying.
Four more Purdue swimmers qualified for the `C' final of the 100 freestyle. Freshman Noah Pashley led the group with his 19th-place finish in 47.27 after swimming a season-best time of 47.26 in the morning session. Classmate Chuck Destro was next in 47.64 following a 47.06 qualifying effort and was followed immediately by Joyce, who finished in 47.72 after touching the wall in a season-best time of 47.07 in the morning session. Fellow sophomore Kyle House was 24th with his 48.50 time that followed a 47.85 effort in the preliminary round.
Senior Aaron Koger finished third in the final of the 200 breaststroke with his season-best 2:01.03 time after qualifying in 2:03.05. Sophomore Albert Miller won the `B' final in 2:05.54 after he touched the wall in 2:06.55 to qualify for the final in his first attempt at that race this season. Junior Scott Dean finished 11th in 2:06.70 after qualifying with his 2:07.08 time. Senior Nathan Taylor swam a season-best time of 2:07.73 following a then-season-best 2:08.26 swim in the morning session to advance to the final. Sophomore Wyatt Hodges finished 22nd in 2:13.46 after recording a 2:11.16 time in the morning swim.
Purdue's 400 freestyle relay team of Wachtel, Boeh, Barry and Wolfred wrapped up the meet with a fifth-place, 3:05.11 time. The quartet recorded the fastest time of any Boilermaker relay in that event this season.
Purdue added one more season-best time in the morning session. Freshman Benjamin Ziolkowski touched the wall in 48.01 for his fastest 100 freestyle of the season. Also in the morning session, sophomore Jimmy Brooks completed the 100 freestyle in 48.07 and freshman Dan Farrell finished in 50.25.
Louisville won the team title with 938.5 points. Ohio State scored 932.5 points and Missouri State put 320.5 points on the board to sandwich around Purdue.
The Boilermaker swimmers have completed their fall competitions, but the divers are set to travel to the Ohio State Invitational which runs Dec. 4-6. The entire team gets back together after the calendar switches to 2010 when Purdue hosts Michigan State in a dual from Jan. 7-9.