Nov. 21, 2010
Complete Results | Diving Scores | Post-Meet Quotes | Sunday Highlights
Saturday Night Photo Gallery
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Purdue men's swimming and diving clinched the team title at the Purdue Invitational thanks to individual victories from David Boudia, Ben Wachtel and the 400 free relay team Sunday afternoon on the final day of the three-day event at the Boilermaker Aquatic Center.
The Purdue women (520.5 points) finished fourth of eight teams. Arkansas (811.5) won the women's side of the Invitational, topping second-place Louisville (689) by 122.5 points.
It was another day full of seasonal top times and NCAA provisional qualifiers for both Boilermaker teams, but freshman Emily Fogle posted the most impressive time of the day when she broke the school record in the 200 breast. Fogle finished with a time of 2:12.97, breaking Jennifer Lavers' record of 2:15.83 established in 2006.
Team Scores
| Men #21 Purdue, 968.5 #8 Ohio State, 761.5 #19 Louisville, 653.5 Southern Illinois, 381.5 Missouri State, 310 Cincinnati, 144 Michigan (Divers only), 89 | Women #20 Arkansas, 811.5 #17 Louisville, 689 #21 Ohio State, 677 #19 Purdue, 520.5 #13 Michigan, 405 Missouri State, 182 Cincinnati, 155 Southern Illinois, 125 |
The Purdue men (968.5 points) held the lead after each day of competition on their way to defeating 2010 Big Ten champion Ohio State (761.5) and Louisville (653.5), the defending Purdue Invitational champs.
Platform diving was contested for the first time this season at the Boilermaker Aquatic Center, and Purdue had the top two finishers among both the men and women. In the process, Boudia (first, 524.2 points), Danny Cox (second, 390.5 points), Kara Cook (first, 291.4 points) and Erin Mertz (second, 263.7 points) all posted NCAA Zone qualifying scores. Cook posted her first victory of the year.
Wachtel capped a strong weekend performance by winning the 100 freestyle and anchoring Purdue's victorious 400 free relay team. Wachtel teamed up with Matt Friede, Chuck Destro and Phil Geerdes to post an NCAA provisional qualifying time of 2:58.41.
The women's 400 free relay team of Ariel Martin, Lisa Butler, Lauren Roth and Fogle (3:22.03) also hit the NCAA provisional mark while finishing second.
Purdue Exponent Meet Recap -- Photos & Video
The Purdue men dominated the 100 and 1,650 freestyle. Five of the top 10 finishers in both events were Boilermakers. Geerdes and Friede also qualified for the 100 A final with Wachtel, whose preliminary time of a 44.82 was a season best by a Boilermaker. Danny Tucker and Destro finished one-two in the B final.
Andrew Starr (won heat two, second overall) and Matt Stewart (won heat four, third overall) both won a heat of the 1,650 free and finished in the top three of the event overall. Stewart won the C final of the 200 back approximately 30 minutes after rallying to win the fourth and final heat of the mile by less than a second. Starr also swam in both events and posted a new season-best time for Purdue in the 1,650.
Caitlin Hamilton, meanwhile, posted an NCAA provisional qualifying time (16:19.94) while finishing third in the 1,650 free.
Other season top times came from: Allie Smith (1:59.66, morning prelim) and Brian Kiel (1:49.24) in the 200 back, Martin (50.81, morning prelim) in the 100 free, Wyatt Hodges (2:05.80) in the 200 breast and Roth (2:00.81) in the 200 fly.
Roth won the B final of the 200 fly while posting her time. Other individual heat winners for Purdue in the evening finals session included: Tyler Gertz in the 200 back (B final), Ellesse Lunde in the 200 breast (B final), Mary-Margaret Lopez in the 200 fly (C final).
The Purdue swimmers are not scheduled to compete again until after Jan. 1 in Florida. The Boilermakers are schedule to take on Ivy League opponents Brown and Penn Jan. 5 at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton. However, the Purdue divers are slated to be in action the weekend of Dec. 2-4 at the Texas Diving Invitational in Austin.
Post-Meet Quotes
Dan Ross
"I'm kind of shocked to win by that much. I'm really proud of the guys. Winning this meet is something they really wanted to do. And the two examples I would give are our two captains. On the first day, Ben Wachtel swam the 200 IM to get team points because we only had him and Brian Kiel. Then he only had 10 minutes before the 50 free, and he did not make the finals like he should have. But he sacrificed to get more points for the team. Drew Wolfred the next day, he wanted to swim the 400 IM and 200 free, which is very difficult to do. And he was able to score in both events. We're talking about unselfishness. It started with the captains and permeates right down. We've got a lot of talented freshmen with Matt Friede, Phil Geerdes and Brian. And then you throw in the more experienced guys like Wachtel and Chuck Destro and it was a pretty impressive weekend.
"This is the best weekend we've had at this meet ever and definitely the best meet we've had this fall. They had the goal that everybody was going to swim as many events as they could to score as many points as they could for the team. If you want to win a Big Ten championship, you've got to find a way to win an Invitational. Do it at home against the defending Big Ten champions (Ohio State) and against a Louisville team that beat all of us at last year at this meet. This weekend, our guys found a way to win against some really good competition."
Matt Stewart
"I felt like we came in rested and wanted to prove a point. We just beat the Big Ten champions (Ohio State), so we're proud of that. They didn't have divers. But I think we beat them by more than our divers scored. So I thought we really made a statement this weekend."
"I wasn't really feeling that great going into the mile. I've had a long weekend of distance swims. I was in between two Buckeyes and I wanted to pull it out because of the team race, and I didn't know how close it would come down to."
Ben Wachtel
"The thing that stood out to me the most was that the guys that were struggling at the beginning of the weekend kept battling. We were able to push through some early struggles and keep going. It says a lot about how far our team has come in the past five weeks. We've had meets the past four weekends and then this would of course be the fifth. Even if we're swimming a little tired, I think that the guys who struggled early pulled through."
"It's hard to look at points, especially at a meet like this. But I think it speaks to how tough our team is. I think the biggest difference between this year and last year, last year if we had struggled early we probably would have given up and made excuses. This year I don't think we're doing that as much."
"I'd just like to give a shout out to the team. I think we had a great weekend of swimming. We've had some freshmen that have struggled to make an adjustment, but now we're starting to see some results from that. But at the same time, we look at this meet as something to grow from. We had a lot of success but there is still a lot of work to do to become the team we're capable of being."
Emily Fogle
"I didn't know what to expect. I just wanted to see what I could do at finals tonight. The 200 breast isn't my favorite event, but I just wanted to end the fall season with a good swim. I questioned (being the anchor of the 400 free relay) at first but I'm glad I could help the team. It was exciting."
"Having four meets in a row and this being our fifth, it's tough, especially for the freshmen, to come into an invite and expect to produce your best in every single session. But I think this is a really good rehearsal for the Big Ten Championships coming up at the end of the season. Just looking at the times this weekend, John said we're ahead of where we were at this time last year. So that bodes well for the end of the season."
John Klinge
"I think this was a solid meet for us and we've been focusing on this all fall. We had some very good swims, but we also had some inconsistencies that we need to work on as we go forward. If we want to be a really great team, we can't have the inconsistencies we saw. But there were some definite highlights. I think throughout the meet, there were some individuals or events where we weren't where we need to be. Most people had a great swim somewhere during the meet, but maybe not all their swims were good. So we need to make sure our whole team is clicking at one time as we go into the conference meet."
"I thought our upperclassmen, for the most part, really did a real good job of setting the tone and being consistent throughout the weekend. I thought maybe our more inexperienced swimmers struggled a little bit with swimming against this caliber of athlete. They're talented enough to and have worked hard enough. I think it's just a little bit of belief and consistency in their approach, and they'll be fine."
Purdue season top times, NCAA provisional qualifiers (B) & notable finishes...
200 Back
Allie Smith - 1:59.66 (morning prelim)
Brian Kiel - 1:49.24 - Finished fourth
Tyler Gertz & Mark Boman finished 1-2 in B final
Matt Stewart - Won C final
100 Free
Ariel Martin - 50.81 (morning prelim)
Ben Wachtel - 44.82 (morning prelim) - Won event with time of 44.92
Danny Tucker & Chuck Destro finished 1-2 in B final, as Purdue had 5 of top 10 finishers
200 Breast
Emily Fogle - 2:12.97 (B), School Record Time - Finished third
Ellesse Lunde won B final
Wyatt Hodges - 2:05.80 - Finished fifth
200 Fly
Lauren Roth - 2:00.81 - Won B final
Mary-Margaret Lopez - Won C final
1,650 Free
Caitlin Hamilton - 16:19.94 (B) - Finished third
Andrew Starr - 15:38.93 - Won heat 2 and finished second overall
Matt Stewart - Won heat 4 and finished third overall
Purdue men had five of the top 10 finishers
Platform Diving
Kara Cook - 291.40 - Won Event; Erin Mertz second with 263.70. Both NCAA Zone qualifiers.
David Boudia - 524.20 - Won event; Danny Cox second with 390.50. Both NCAA Zone qualifiers.
400 Free Relay
Women's A: Martin, Butler, Roth & Fogle - 3:22.03 (B) - Finished second
Women's C: Brolsma, Dunleavy, Comodeca & McIlrath - Won heat 2
Men's A: Friede, Destro, Geerdes, Wachtel - 2:58.41 (B) - Won event
Men's B: Ung, Tucker, Pashley, Ziolkowski - Won heat 1