Feb. 16, 2011
Results | Championships Central | Dive-by-Dive Scoring
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - Purdue women's swimming and diving broke three program records, including two new benchmarks being established in one event, on the opening night of the Big Ten Conference Championships.
The Boilermakers set new team records in the 200 medley (1:39.40) and 800 freestyle (7:06.90) relays, eclipsing marks from last season. Individually, Ariel Martin's time (1:45.25) on the leadoff leg of the 800 free relay was also a school record in the 200. She bested her own Purdue benchmark from last season by three tenths of a second.
"We started off pretty well with three school records tonight," Purdue head coach John Klinge said. "We'll need to do even better tomorrow and I think the women are ready to have a great morning."
Martin, Lisa Butler, Lauren Roth and Lauren Gustafson teamed up on the record-setting 800 free relay, finishing fourth place among a fast field. Indiana won the event with a Big Ten Championships-record time (7:01.13) and an NCAA automatic-qualifying mark. Purdue improved on its best time of 2010-11 by more than 14 seconds.
Allie Smith, Emily Fogle, Butler and Martin teamed up on the record-setting 200 medley relay. The Boilermakers improved on their team best time of 2010-11 by more than two seconds while finishing sixth. Wisconsin won the event. The Badgers and Minnesota both posted NCAA automatic-qualifying times.
Both Purdue relays improved on their NCAA provisional times established earlier this year.
Additionally, synchronized 3-meter diving was also contested Wednesday evening as an exhibition event. Purdue's Erin Mertz and Maddie Miskulin finished fourth among eight tandems with a score of 245.19.
The Boilermakers earned 30 points in the 800 free relay and 26 points in the 200 medley relay. Purdue is in fifth place after the opening night of competition, two points behind fourth-place Ohio State. Wisconsin and Indiana have the lead with 68 points each.
The Big Ten Championships continue Thursday with preliminaries at 11:30 a.m.
Purdue Highlights
! - New School Record
(B) - NCAA Provisional Qualifying Time
200 Medley Relay Team (Smith, Fogle, Butler & Martin), 1:39.40! (B) - Finished Sixth
800 Free Relay Team (Martin, Butler, Roth & Gustafson), 7:06.90! (B) - Finished Fourth
Ariel Martin set new school record time (1:45.25) in 200 free on opening leg of 800 free relay
Opening Night Team Scores
#14 Indiana, 68
#17 Wisconsin, 68
#13 Minnesota, 66
#19 Ohio State, 58
#20 Purdue, 56
Penn State, 56
#16 Michigan, 54
Northwestern, 46
Illinois, 32
Iowa, 32
Michigan State, 24