Friday Results / Dive-by-Dive Scoring / Saturday Heat Sheets / Notables / Meet Central
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Steele Johnson earned six 10s on his final dive of the 3-meter final and Purdue men's swimming & diving won three consolation finals Friday at the Big Ten Championships.
Freshman Kiki Komlenic eclipsed the program record in the 100 backstroke for the second night in a row while winning the B final of the event. He became the first Boilermaker to post a sub-47 second time in the event, finishing in 46.97 Friday. He led off Purdue's recording-setting 400 medley relay Thursday with a record time of 47.11. The Boilermakers have established a new team benchmark on each night of Big Tens so far this week.
Johnson finished third in another very high-scoring springboard championship final, claiming his fourth career Big Ten medal. He thrilled the crowd with a near flawless dive in the final round, earning a remarkable score of 114 on a forward 4 ½ somersault tuck. That allowed him to surpass a list score of 500 points (506.45), improving on his second-highest mark in program history. But it was not enough to overcome an error in round one when he hit the board, opening the competition with a score of 51.
Umm...you guys...@Steele_Johnson is GOOD! Glad he's on our side. #BoilerUp https://t.co/18Xobqttkx
-- Purdue Athletics (@PurdueSports) February 25, 2017
Joe Cifelli, Brandon Loschiavo and Max Showalter also scored in the diving well for the second day in a row, allowing Purdue to rack up 84 points on 3-meter. With Josh Brooks (4th) and Adam Noens (7th) also being A finalists in the 400 IM, Purdue was able to move up to fifth place in the team scoring. The Boilermakers leapfrogged Wisconsin on Friday and have now risen from eighth place Wednesday to sixth place Thursday to fifth place entering the final day of the meet Saturday.
Marat Amaltdinov won the B final of the 100 breaststroke and Loschiavo was victorious in the consolation final of 3-meter.
Cifelli (452.55) and Loschiavo (450.75) moved up to third and fifth place in program history with their career-best scores. Johnson won the prelim round (495.5) for the second day in a row, outscoring fellow 2016 Olympian Michael Hixon by 36.85 points in the afternoon. But Hixon improved on his score by 61.75 points in the final, winning with a pool-record score of 520.4.
Amaltdinov won the B final of the 100 breast with a time of 53.19 that was only one hundredth of a second off his career best. Joe Young moved up to second place in program history with a time of 47.3 in the prelims of the 100 back, qualifying for the B final. Chris Bals (100 breast, 53.87), Joe Gardner (100 breast, 54.73), Jake Thomas (100 back, 48.10) and Grant Lewis (400 IM, 3:52.24) also scored while posting career-best times that rank among the top 10 in program history.
Seniors Filip Bujoczek (200 free) and Austin Flager (100 fly) were individual finalists for the second day in a row and also teamed with Nate Thomas and Eddy Zawatski on Purdue's 200 freestyle relay team that posted the 10th-fastest time (1:19.64) in program history.
Senior Alex Toetz was recognized as the Boilermakers' Big Ten Sportsmanship honoree. He also scored as a C finalist in the 100 back Friday.
The Big Ten Championships conclude Saturday with prelims at 11 a.m. ET and finals at 6:30 p.m.
TEAM SCORES THROUGH FRIDAY FINALS
1.) No. 4 Indiana 999
2.) No. 17 Ohio State 939.5
3.) No. 11 Michigan 923.5
4.) No. 20 Minnesota 551
5.) Purdue 505.5
6.) No. 23 Wisconsin 502
7.) Penn State 405.5
8.) Iowa 297
9.) Northwestern 237
10.) Michigan State 212
Give it a 👐 pic.twitter.com/2B9P6vW97s
-- Purdue Diving (@PurdueDivers) February 25, 2017