Thursday Results / Dive-by-Dive Scoring / Purdue Notables / Championships Central
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Two new records and a pair of podium finishes as A finals qualifiers in the 500 freestyle and 1-meter diving highlighted the first full day of the Big Ten Championships for Purdue women's swimming and diving.
Kaersten Meitz eclipsed her own program record in the 500 free in both the prelims and finals. She finished fourth in the A final with a time of 4:39.75 on a day in which she became the first Boilermaker to ever post a sub-4:40 time in the event. The sophomore has now broken the program's 500 free record four times in her Purdue career.
The Boilermakers tallied 66 team points in 1-meter diving by having a league-high three of the top 10 finishers. Mary Beth Dunnichay took fourth with a Purdue season-best score of 325.85, improving on her prelim score by 27 points. Samm Reese was seventh in her first career A final. Freshman Morgan Meixner finished as the runner-up in the B final with a personal season-best score of 306.85.Meixner improved on her prelim score by 29 points and Reese upped her prelim score by just under 22 points.
Alex Clarke broke Purdue's longest-standing freshman swimming record, posting a time of 1:59.86 in the 200 individual medley prelims. She topped Allie Smith's 2008 freshman benchmark and became just the third Boilermaker ever to post a sub two-minute time in the event. The Carmel native took fifth and Meagan Lim was eighth in the B final of 200 IM in the evening session to account for 25 team points.
Allie Davis, Nika Karlina Petric, Lizzy Lyon and Emily Meckstroth also scored in the 500 free Thursday, teaming up with Meitz for 69 team points in the event. Davis qualified for the A final to rack up 22 points and Petric took fifth in the B final. Meckstroth is already Purdue's third freshman to score at the meet in an individual event.
The Boilermakers jumped six spots from 13th to seventh in the team scoring Thursday. Despite losing out on 46 team points via a relay disqualification Wednesday, Purdue is now only 26.5 points behind fifth-place Wisconsin and 52.5 points back of fourth-place Minnesota.
The Big Ten Championships continue Friday with prelims at 11 a.m. and finals at 6:30 p.m.
Team Scoring
1. #3 Michigan, 423.5
2. #13 Indiana, 406.5
3. #18 Ohio State, 328
4. #22 Minnesota, 298.5
5. #12 Wisconsin, 272.5
6. #25 Penn State, 271.5
7. #21 Purdue 246
8. Nebraska, 192
9. Northwestern, 191
10. Iowa, 135.5
11. Michigan State, 129
12. Illinois, 125
13. Rutgers, 107