By Tom Schott
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Track & field hosts the Rankin/Poehlein Invitational beginning at 3 p.m. today and continuing at 10 a.m. tomorrow.
At 2:30 p.m. tomorrow, youngsters in eighth grade or below are invited to take part in a 50-meter race on the Rankin Track. Participants need a meet admission ticket - priced at just $2 - to run and will receive a medal and a pair of Boilermaker headphones. You can preregister here, but walkup entries also are welcome.
Last Saturday at the Drake Relays, sophomore Devynne Charlton became the third current Boilermaker to break an international record. She became the fastest 100-meter hurdler in Bahamas history after running a wind-legal time of 13.06 seconds (wind: +1.1). That time is a school record and ranks second in the Big Ten and eighth in NCAA Division I this season.
Purdue's two other international record-holders are junior Chukwuebuka Enekwechi with a Nigerian-record 69.57 meters (228-feet, 3-inches) in the hammer throw and junior Vanessa McLeod with a Canadian junior-record time of 2:04.89 in the 800 meters.
Women's Tennis Returns to NCAA Championship
For the fourth consecutive season and the eighth time in program history, women's tennis has been selected to the NCAA Championship. The No. 38 Boilermakers (14-8) received one of 32 at-large bids into the 64-team field. They will take on No. 23 Duke (16-9), also an at-large selection, in the first round May 9 in Athens, Georgia.
Host Georgia (20-6) is seeded sixth and will play Charleston Southern (18-2). The first-round winners will square off May 10 to advance to the Round of 16 in Waco, Texas.
Seniors Daniela Vidal and Lynda Xepoleas are the first Purdue women's tennis players to earn a trip to the NCAA Championship in each of their four seasons.
Junior Tess Bernard-Feigenbaum was named to the All-Big Ten team. She boasts an overall singles record of 29-5 (9-1 fall and 20-4 spring), including a Big Ten dual mark of 8-3. Bernard-Feigenbaum paces Purdue in spring wins and overall wins and also has posted a 27-7 record in doubles play.
Women's Golf NCAA Regional-Bound
After finishing in third place at the Big Ten Championships last weekend, women's golf earned the No. 9 seed in the NCAA South Bend Regional, which will be played May 7 to 9 at the Warren Golf Course on the Notre Dame campus.
It marks the 19th regional appearance for the Boilermakers in the last 20 seasons. They are looking for their 15th trip to the NCAA Championships. Purdue won the national championship in 2010, was runner-up in 2011 and finished third in 2013.
At the Big Ten Championships, the Boilermakers wound up nine strokes behind co-champions Ohio State and Northwestern with an 8-over-par 872 for the 54-hole tournament. Freshman Marta Martin was Purdue's top finisher, tying for fifth place with a 1-over par 217. Senior Aurora Kan was right behind with a 2-over-par 218 to tie for seventh. Both Martin and Kan were named second team All-Big Ten, as was sophomore August Kim.
No-No for Fecho
Junior Lilly Fecho fired the first no-hitter of her career as the Boilermakers beat Indiana State 2-0 on Wednesday in their home finale at the Boilermaker Softball Stadium. Fecho (19-14) struck out nine and walked none, and only a fourth-inning error kept her from a perfect game.
The no-no was the 15th in school history and the first since Alex Whittemore authored one Feb. 23, 2014, against Mississippi Valley State. Fecho has tossed four one hitters in 2015 - against No. 1 Texas A&M on Feb. 8, Indiana State on March 6 and Wisconsin on March 20 and 21.
Senior first baseman Ashley Burkhart socked a two-run homer in the fifth inning in support of Fecho.
Purdue (30-21, 7-11 B1G) wraps up the regular season with a three-game series at Minnesota (43-8, 17-3) today through Sunday. The Boilermakers have reached the 30-win plateau for the 15th time in program history and the first time since 2012.
The Big Ten Tournament begins May 6 in Columbus, Ohio, with the conference's top 12 teams participating. The Boilermakers currently are tied for 10th place with Indiana.
Divers Tweardy and Bissett Receive Big Ten Medal of Honor
Senior divers MacKenzie Tweardy and Jamie Bissett were awarded the prestigious Big Ten Medal of Honor to highlight the Golden Pete Awards show Sunday night at the historic Loeb Playhouse on campus.
Tweardy is a two-time All-American. She is a two-time NCAA Championships qualifier who finished eighth nationally in 10-meter platform diving as a junior to earn All-America honors. This season, she garnered honorable mention All-America accolades. She competed at the World University Games in Russia during the summer of 2013. MacKenzie scored in all three diving events at the Big Ten Championships each of the last three years and ranks second among active Boilermakers in career scoring at Big Ten's. Tweardy was Purdue's top individual scorer at the 2013 Big Ten Championships, earning second team all-conference honors after finishing as the runner-up in the championship final of 1-meter and platform. The Grafton, Ohio, native ranks among Purdue's all-time top five in both 1-meter and platform diving. She is a three-time Academic All-Big Ten honoree, compiling a 3.47 grade-point average as a biomedical engineering major.
Bissett is a three-time All-American as well as a 2014 Academic All-America honoree. He won a national title in 3-meter diving at the Canadian Winter Nationals earlier this year and also qualified for the NCAA Championships for the third time as a Boilermaker. He finished eighth in platform diving at NCAA's this year for his top individual showing at the national championship meet. Bissett was an honorable mention All-American in platform diving as a sophomore and in 3-meter diving as a junior. He was Purdue's top individual scorer at the Big Ten Championships in both 2013 and 2014 and ranks as the program's active career leader in scoring at Big Ten's by a significant margin after scoring in all three diving events each of the last three years. The Ottawa, Ontario, native ranks among the Purdue all-time top 10 in all three diving events. He is a three-time Academic All-Big Ten honoree, compiling a 3.86 grade-point average as a health sciences pre-professional major.
The Big Ten, the nation's oldest collegiate conference, is commemorating the 101st anniversary of a very unique tradition, the Big Ten Medal of Honor. The conference's most exclusive award was the first of its kind in intercollegiate athletics to recognize academic and athletic excellence. The Big Ten Medal of Honor was first awarded in 1915 to one student-athlete from the graduating class of each university who had "attained the greatest proficiency in athletics and scholastic work." Big Ten schools currently feature almost 9,500 student-athletes, but only 28 earn this prestigious award on an annual basis. In the 100 years of the Medal of Honor, almost 1,400 student-athletes have earned this distinction.
You can read all about the Golden Petes here.
Etcetera
Purdue is ranked No. 35 on a list of schools "where students are both athletic and smart," compiled by Business Insider ... Today, Fanatics, the official online store of Boilermaker Athletics , is offering free shipping on all orders over $75 ... During Wednesday's Purdue Day of Giving, 862 donors contributed $837,535 to the athletics department. Campus-wide, the second-annual event netted $13,695,951 from 9,592 donations, surpassing last year's $7.5 million total and setting a record for most dollars raised for higher education through a single-day campaign. Thanks to all the generous givers ... Men's golf finished eighth at the Big Ten Championships last weekend and awaits word on a possible NCAA Regional berth, which will be announced Monday, May 4, on the Golf Channel beginning at 10 a.m. ET. Sophomore Austin Eoff was Purdue's top finisher at Big Ten's, finishing tied for ninth with a 4-over-par 292 for the 72-hole tournament. He earned second team all-conference honors for the second straight year ... Baseball (13-31, 1-14) begins a seven-game road stretch with a three-game weekend series at Michigan State (27-17, 9-6). The Boilermakers are playing the Spartans in East Lansing for the third consecutive year ... Purdue's 2016 Homecoming date will be Oct. 15, when the football team plays host to Iowa ... Men's basketball will participate in the 2015 Hall of Fame Tip-Off Tournament. The Boilermakers will play two home games - Nov. 13 vs. North Carolina A&T and Nov. 15 vs. Vermont - before facing Old Dominion on Nov. 21 and either Florida or Saint Joseph's on Nov. 22 at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut ... Outgoing seniors Jesse Schmitt and Justin Sinz have been recognized as members of the National Football Foundation Hampshire Honor Society, which is comprised of football student-athletes from all divisions who maintained a cumulative 3.2 or better grade-point average throughout their collegiate career ... Former football offensive lineman Devin Smith (2012-13) is playing for the Saginaw Sting of American Indoor Football. Another Boilermaker, safety Stuart Schweigert (2000-03), is co-owner, director of football operations and head coach ... Former soccer player Lauren Sesselmann (2001-05) has been selected to the Canadian Women's National Team for the FIFA Women's World Cup this summer. She helped Canada win a bronze medal at the 2012 Olympic Games in London ... The deadline to register in the Ryan Kerrigan 12th Boiler Golf Outing on May 8 has been extended to Wednesday, May 6. For more information, click here.