2 Medal, 4 Finish Among Top 6 on the Tower at Big Tens2 Medal, 4 Finish Among Top 6 on the Tower at Big Tens

2 Medal, 4 Finish Among Top 6 on the Tower at Big Tens

<br /><br />Medals for Maycey Vieta and Maggie Merriman in their first career championship finals headlined a big night in which Purdue had four of the top six finishers in platform diving in the final session of the Big Ten Championships.

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IOWA CITY, Iowa Medals for Maycey Vieta and Maggie Merriman in their first career championship finals headlined a big night in which Purdue had four of the top six finishers in platform diving in the final session of the Big Ten Championships.

Emily Bretscher (260.40) placed sixth in the platform final, clinching Diver of the Championship honors. The junior medaled in both springboard events and finished among the top six in all three championship finals. She became Purdue's fourth female diver (five total awards) to the win the award and first since Casey Matthews, the 2014 Big Ten champion on 1-meter.

Vieta (279.65) won silver and Merriman (277.95) bronze on the tower, giving the Boilermakers four medals at Big Tens this season. Vieta was tops in the prelims by 33 points. She ripped her final dive of the final for a score of 71, clinching silver as the final diver to compete. Merriman was also in position to win in the final rounds but settled for bronze.

The Boilermakers finished seventh in the team scoring with 602 points.

Senior Emily Meaney (267.80) rallied to take fourth on the platform, finishing her career at Big Tens as not only a four-year championship finalist in the event but also placing in the top four all four years. It was her sixth career championship final at Big Tens overall and she remains Purdue's active career scoring leader at the meet.

Kendra Bowen (49.75) eclipsed Purdue's freshman record in the 100 freestyle, which had stood since the 2015 Big Ten Championships. It was the program's fourth freshman benchmark to fall this season. Mallory Jump accounted for the first three and nearly made it four Saturday. She was just .02 hundredths of a second off the freshman record in the 200 backstroke from the 2016 Big Ten Championships. Bowen and Jump both moved up Purdue's all-time lists.

Classmates Sylvia Kobylak (2:11.86 in 200 breast) and Lindsay Turner (1:58.56 in 200 fly) also registered career-best times as B finalists in their premier events, improving their places on the program's all-time lists. Vieta's prelim score of 294.20 on the tower moved the freshman into 11th place in Purdue history.

All four of Purdue's divers scored in all four events this week. By comprising half the field of the platform championship final Saturday, the divers racked up 105 points in the event. Bretscher was the team's leading scorer, accounting for 83 points as a three-time championship finalist.

The 400 freestyle relay closed the meet by winning heat 1 of the event, moving into sixth place in team history with a time of 3:18.69. The quartet of swimmers was Bowen, Claire Abbasse, Gretta DeCoursey and Maizie Seidl.

Selected Boilermakers will compete again Saturday at the annual Boiler-Make-It NCAA Last Chance meet. NCAA swimming qualifiers will be announced Wednesday, March 4. Divers qualify through the Zone Championships. Purdue competes in the Zone C meet the weekend of March 12 to 14 in Lexington, Kentucky.

BIG TEN HONORS
Emily Bretscher – Diver of the Championships, First Team All-Big Ten
Maycey Vieta – Second Team All-Big Ten

4 BOILERMAKERS IN PLATFORM DIVING CHAMPIONSHIP FINAL
Maycey Vieta – Silver Medalist (28 Points)
Maggie Merriman – Bronze Medalist (27 Points)
Emily Meaney – 4th Place (26 Points)
Emily Bretscher – 6th Place (24 Points)

INDIVIDUAL ALL-TIME RANKINGS
Sylvia Kobylak, 2:11.86 – 5th in 200 Breast
Mallory Jump – 5th in 200 Back
Lindsay Turner, 1:58.56 – 6th in 200 Fly
Kendra Bowen, 49.75 – 8th in 100 Free (Freshman Record)
Maycey Vieta, 294.20 – 11th in Platform Diving

B FINALISTS
Sylvia Kobylak – 2nd in 200 Breast
Lindsay Turner – 5th in 200 Fly
Jinq En Phee – 6th in 200 Breast

400 FREE RELAY
Time: 3:18.69
Team: Kendra Bowen, Claire Abbasse, Gretta DeCoursey & Maizie Seidl
Finish: 7th
All-Time Rank: 6th
Points: 46
100 Splits: Abbasse 23.08, Bowen 22.77, DeCoursey 22.98, Mudd 22.94

FINAL TEAM SCORES
1.) No. 19 Ohio State 1503.5
2.) No. 5 Michigan 1306.5
3.) No. 21 Indiana 964
4.) No. 25 Northwestern 907.5
5.) Wisconsin 734
6.) No. 25 Minnesota 617
7.) Purdue 602
8.) Penn State 517.5
9.) Iowa 430
10.) Nebraska 385
11.) Rutgers 291
12.) Michigan State 203
13.) Illinois 193