March 26, 2001
COLLEGE STATION, Texas - The Purdue men's swim team came away from the 2001 NCAA Championships with a 25th-place finish and 21 points for the second highest finish in 32 years. The Boilermakers competed with only two participants, senior freestyler Matt Martin and freshman breaststroker Tamas Bessenyei, making their point total even more impressive.
"This was a great meet for us," said Purdue head coach Dan Ross. "We finished in 25th place, which was our goal and we're very excited about it. This also is the second highest finish we've achieved since I've been coaching. With only two guys here and with Matt (Martin) finishing sixth in the mile, while setting a varsity record, he's going out with a bang. That's exciting both for him and me."
Martin finished the meet on an extremely high note, competing in the 1650 freestyle in the Saturday evening finals session and recording Purdue varsity records in both the 1000 free and the 1650 free. Martin's times of 9:00.3 in the 1000 and 14:50.56 in the 1650 were also lifetime best times for the senior from Mission Viejo, Calif. With his time in the 1650 free, Martin took off almost six seconds from his previous lifetime best and varsity records, which were set at the 2001 Big Ten Championships in Minneapolis. He was also named an Honorable Mention All-American for his 400 individual medley finish of 16 on Friday and an All-American for the second time in the 1650 free for his sixth-place finish.
"This was probably my best meet ever as a swimmer," said Martin. "I met my goal of coming in sixth in the mile and I'm so happy that I was able to break two of my own school records again. Being named an All-American for the second time is a great honor and it's been an unbelievable ride. This meet gives me a great high to head to the U.S. Senior Nationals. I'm extremely excited to try and represent the U.S. team again."
For Bessenyei, it was a tenth-place finish in the morning's preliminaries with a time of 1:57.95 that guaranteed him Honorable Mention All-American honors for the second time, following his 12th-place finish in the 100 breast on Friday. Despite his morning swim, Bessenyei finished slightly slower with a time of 1:58.36 for 12th place in the evening's finals.
"I'm satisfied with my year as a whole," said Bessenyei. "Winning Big Ten's makes me very happy. NCAA's is disappointing, a little, but I think it was okay for my first year. Hopefully next year, I'll be much better with the new pool."
The Boilermakers will be back in action as they will send two representatives to the World University Games and World National tryouts this weekend in Austin, Texas. Martin will compete in the 400 IM and the 1500 freestyle, while sophomore Tad Sayce will compete in the 100 and 200 butterfly and the 200 IM.
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