Jan. 20, 2001
ANN ARBOR, Mich. - The 19th-ranked Purdue men's swim team dropped to 5-2 (2-2 Big Ten) today in a double-dual meet against the No. 9 Michigan Wolverines and the No. 23 Penn State Nittany Lions. Michigan beat the Boilermakers 183-60 while Penn State won by a score of 171-72. Michigan also defeated Penn State, improving their record to 3-4. Penn State moved to 3-1 on the year.
"Today was a rough day for us," head swim coach Dan Ross said. "This weekend was a battle for us and although we didn't have a great team showing, we did have some outstanding individual performances. This next week will give us plenty of time to rebound and come back to be ready to go for the next three weeks of hard, Big Ten competition."
Those outstanding individual performances were highlighted by senior Matt Martin's season-best time by more than seven seconds of 9:12.84 in the 100 free, freshman Tamas Bessenyei's second-place finish in the 200 breaststroke with a time of 2:00.89, and the 400 medley relay team's time of 3:21.01 for a second-place finish. Team members included senior Juan Rodela, Bessenyei, sophomore Tad Sayce and senior Jon Duncan.
Also finishing for Purdue in the 1000 freestyle was junior Tom Drejer in eighth place with a time of 9:39.02 and freshman Garth Bringman with a time of 9:48.79 for a ninth-place finish.
In the 200 free, junior Javier Diaz finished in 1:39.93 for fifth place and sophomore Jeremy Wright finished seventh with a time of 1:40.89.
Senior Dave Weis finished the 50 free in 21.17 for fourth place while Rodela finished in 21.85 for eighth place.
The 200 individual medley gave Purdue seventh and eighth places with Sayce at 1:53.78 and Martin at 1:54.17.
Bessenyei finished in 1:54.42 for seventh place, while Sayce and senior Matt Garrison finished 10th and 11th in the 200 butterfly, with times of 1:57.01 and 1:58.04, respectively.
Diaz gave the Boilermakers a seventh-place finish in the 100 free in 46.04, while Duncan finished eighth in 46.27.
Rodela finished fifth in the 200 backstroke with a time of 1:50.17 and senior Ian Caswell finished in 1:54.35 for eighth place.
In the 500 free, Martin finished fourth with a time of 4:32.72 and Wright finished right behind for fifth with a time of 4:35.56.
Behind Bessenyei's second-place finish in the 200 breast, sophomore Mike Miller came in sixth with a time of 2:06.22 and sophomore Gui Rego came in seventh with a time of 2:06.52.
Purdue finished the meet with fourth-place in the 400 free relay with a time of 3:05.39. Team members were Duncan, Weis, Diaz and Wright.
In the one-meter diving, freshman John Haglund finished sixth with 225.85 points and junior Kevin Young finished eighth with 213.35 points.
Haglund finished seventh on the three-meter board with 207.65 and Young finished eighth with 196.25.
The Boilermakers will return to action when they travel to Madison, Wis. for a double-dual meet against Wisconsin and Minnesota on Jan. 26-27. Meet time is set for 6 p.m.
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