Feb. 24, 2000
Ann Arbor, Mich.,--The Purdue men's swimming and diving team is in eighth place after the first day of competition at the Big Ten Swimming and Diving Championships at the University of Michigan. The Boilers have 74 points after six events, one point behind seventh-place Northwestern. The host Wolverines are in the lead with 213 points.
Matt Martin finished third in the 500-yard freestyle in 4:24.01, 3.3 seconds behind first-place finisher Chris Thompson of Michigan, to lead the Boilers. Martin, a junior from Mission Viejo, Calif., came in to the championships ranked 15th in the Big Ten, but shaved over eight seconds off of his previous season-best time of 4:33.03 to break up a potential one-two-three sweep of the event for the Wolverines.
"Martin's effort was big in the 500 free," said Purdue head coach Dan Ross. "He kept Michigan from a 1-2-3 finish at its home pool and earned himself a plaque."
In the 400-yard medley relay, Purdue finished sixth in 3:19.03, .30 seconds behind 5th-place Michigan. The Boiler foursome of John Wakefield, Donovan Crowley, Dan Kleber, and Javier Diaz improved upon its previous season-best of 3:23.67. Minnesota placed first in the event with a time of 3:14.85. The Boilers finished eighth in the 200-yard freestyle relay behind a strong effort in the second leg from Diaz. Diaz, a sophomore, followed up teammate David Weis with a split time of 20.26 before Kevin Cornehl and Jeremy Wright closed things out. The time of 1:22.13 was also a season-best for Purdue, nearly two seconds faster than the previous mark of 1:24.03.
"We've definitely got our work cut out for us of the rest of the weekend," said Ross of Purdue's chances to move up in the standings. "But tomorrow's going to be a good day for us."
The championships continue tomorrow at 12 noon beginning with the swimming preliminaries. Purdue is currently ranked seventh in the Big Ten in the 200-yard medley relay and sixth in the 800-yard freestyle relay. Kleber is ranked 12th in the 100-yard butterfly, Diaz is 12th in the 200-yard freestyle, and Juan Rodela ranks 12th in the 100-yard backstroke. These events, along with the 400-yard individual medley and 100-yard breaststroke will be contested on Friday. The diving preliminaries commence at 1:30 p.m. and the swimming and diving finals are slated for 7:00 p.m.