Nov. 20, 2000
COLLEGE STATION, Texas - The Purdue men's swim team finished the weekend with a very strong second place finish at the Texas A&M Invitational on Saturday, Nov. 18. The Boilermakers totaled 1,667 points and finished behind host Texas A&M and ahead of Stanford, Kentucky, Penn State, Auburn and Texas.
"To be able to come in to a meet of this caliber and do this well is absolutely great," Purdue men's swim coach Dan Ross said. "I give our team an A+ for coming together as a team and working so hard in the fall season. I am excited to see how well we'll do during the bulk of the season if we are swimming this fast now. If we continue to make the strides that we have so far, this team will go places this spring."
In the first event of the final day, Boilermaker senior Matt Martin swam the 1650 freestyle in phenomenal time at 15:13.96 for a first place finish. Junior Tom Drejer finished in 11th place with a time of 16:01.22.
Fellow senior Juan Rodela finished fifth in the 200 backstroke for the Boilermakers with a time of 1:51.12. Freshman Kyle Jackson finished with a time of 1:52.62 for seventh place. Senior Ian Caswell was close behind for Purdue with an eighth place finish and a time of 1:52.69.
In the 100 freestyle, junior Jon Duncan finished with a time of 45.71 for a ninth place finish, while senior teammate Dave Weis turned in a tenth place finish with a time of 46.34.
The 200 breaststroke had three top eight finishers, with freshman Tamas Bessenyei placing first with a time of 2:00.27. In the fourth spot, sophomore Gui Rego finished with a time of 2:04.50 and in the fifth spot, sophomore Tad Sayce finished with a time of 2:04.88. Both Rego and Sayce improved their personal season-best times.
Junior Olympian Javier Daiz finished first for the Boilermakers with a sixth place finish and a personal season-best time of 1:51.45. Sophomore Ehud Dekter took a tenth place finish with a time of 1:53.22 for another personal season-best time.
In the final event of the meet, the Old Gold and Black 400 freestyle relay team of Duncan, Weis, Diaz, and sophomore Jeremy Wright finished fourth and swam a Purdue season-best time of 3:01.99.
The Boilermakers will return to the pool when they travel to Auburn, Ala. for the U.S. Open on Nov. 30-Dec. 2. The meet will begin each day with the preliminary races at 9 a.m. and the finals at 6 p.m.
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