March 22, 2012
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FEDERAL WAY, Wash. - Purdue's 200 freestyle relay team of Ben Ziolkowski, Matt Friede, Ben Wachtel and Danny Tucker advanced to the consolation final of the event Thursday to garner Honorable Mention All-America recognition on the opening day of the NCAA Men's Swimming and Diving Championships.
The Boilermakers finished 13th among the 23 relay foursomes in the morning preliminaries to qualify for the evening finals. Purdue was not able to improve on its prelim time (1:18.63) and settled for eighth place in the consolation final, finishing in 1:19.05.
Ziolkowski, Friede, Wachtel and Tucker teamed up to become the Boilers' first All-American relay team since the 2006 200 medley relay team also garnered Honorable Mention acclaim. The 1998 season marked the last time a Purdue freestyle relay team was among the fastest in the nation. It was also the 200 free relay team which accomplished the feat that year.
The Boilermakers punched their ticket to the NCAA Championships thanks to a program-record time of 1:17.71 at the Big Ten Championships last month.
All four Purdue swimmers also competed individually in the 50 free Thursday. In the preliminaries, Friede (20.18) placed 52nd, Ziolkowski (20.29) 59th, Wachtel (20.47) 65th and Tucker 67th (20.49).
Friede, Tucker and Wachtel will also have the opportunity to compete in the 100 freestyle Saturday on the final day of the NCAA Championships.