Feb. 16, 2001
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - The Purdue women's swim team finished day two of the 2001 Big Ten Women's Swimming Championships with four varsity records broken, countless season and lifetime best times and a seventh place spot with 194 points.
"Today was a real breakthrough day for us," said Purdue head coach Cathy Wright-Eger. "This is the type of day that we've visualized all year. Breaking all these records is something that we've known that these women are capable of and it's truly great to see it happening. We are so happy about the way our team is performing. It's just the way we've visualized it."
The first record for the Boilermakers came in the 200 medley relay. Team members Lisa Dolansky, Lindsay Lange, Missy Bromley and Gyongyver Lakos finished third with a time of 1:42.15 for the new record. That time was also good enough for the NCAA's `B cut.' The previous record of 1:43.04 was held by the same four members and was set in November at the Penn State meet.
In the 100 butterfly, Patricia Finnerty qualified for the consuls round and finished with a time of 55.84 for 10th place. This time is also good enough for the NCAA's `B cut.' Finnerty's time improves her season-best by more than two seconds.
Senior Gyongyver Lakos and sophomore Kim Paradeise qualified for the top 16 this morning at the prelims and finished in seventh and 10th, respectively, in the 200 freestyle. Lakos set the varsity record with her qualifying time of 1:49.46 and then re-set the varsity record at the finals with a time of 1:49.32. Paradeise qualified for the finals in the 16th spot and improved her time by almost three seconds to move up six spots. Her finish was a season-best and the second-fastest on the team this year.
In the 100 breaststroke, Lindsay Lange qualified for the second-place seed after the morning's prelims and then finished with a varsity record time and an automatic bid to the NCAA meet. Lange's time of 1:02.06 was a second-place finish and broke her own previously held record of 1:02.96, which she set at Big Ten's last year.
Senior Brianna Reina also swam in the finals of the 100 breaststroke, finishing 14th with a time of 1:04.73. Reina swam a lifetime-best time of 1:04.59 in the morning qualifying round.
Sophomore Lisa Dolansky recorded the Boilermakers' fourth varsity record of the evening in the 100 backstroke. Dolansky finished with a time of 54.87 and third place. She also received an automatic bid to the NCAA meet with this time. In the past two days, the varsity record for the 100 back has been set and broken three times by Dolansky.
In the 3-meter diving portion of the meet, junior Kara Hajek finished 10th with 437.95 points.
The final season-best time of the Boilermakers' great day came in the 800 free relay with the team of Paradeise, Dolansky, Katie Mullarkey and Lakos. They recorded a time of 7:28.28 for an eighth-place finish. They improved upon their previous time by almost three seconds.
The Old Gold and Black will continue their quest for greatness and NCAA berths at the preliminaries Saturday morning at 11 a.m.
-P-