Jan. 19, 2002
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The Purdue men's swimming and diving team fell today to 12th-ranked Michigan and 20th-ranked Penn State, 136-107 and 162-81. The Boilermakers fall to 5-3 (2-2 Big Ten) overall.
"We're pretty happy about the way things went with the meet today," said Purdue men's head coach Dan Ross. "Unfortunately, we got touched out in a couple of events and Eric (Warrick) was just edged out of second place on the 3-meter board. But, overall, I'm really proud of our guys, they really battled and performed well away from our home facility.
"Now, we're looking to going home and having a weekend off before we swim two quality teams back at home."
The Boilermakers started the meet off strongly with a first-place finish in the 400 medley relay with the 'A' squad of freshman Louis Paul, sophomore Tamas Bessenyei, junior Tad Sayce and senior Jon Duncan. They tallied a season-best time of 3:19.41.
In the 1,000 free, freshman Rion Epping continued his fantastic weekend with a fourth-place finish with a time of 9:19.31, while freshman Steuart Martens finished eighth with a time of 9:27.84.
Senior Javier Diaz was the top Boilermaker finisher in the 200 free with a third-place finish and a time of 1:39.01. Junior Jeremy Wright was not far behind with a time of 1:40.65 in fourth place and sophomore Kyle Jackson was fifth in 1:41.96.
In the 50 free race, Duncan, senior Donovan Crowley and freshman Ignatius Goh finished 6-7-8 with times of 21.41, 21.54 and 21.55, respectively.
The 200 IM race brought Paul back to scoring position for the Boilermakers, as he finished third with a time of 1:52.29 and sophomore Tony Ten Haagen finished ninth in 1:54.40. Senior Tom Drejer also swam and finished 11th with a time of 1:57.09.
Sophomore Tamas Bessenyei finished fourth in a close 200 fly race with a time of 1:51.59 and fellow classmate Nick Cenci finished in 1:52. 00 for fifth place. Diaz and junior Ehud Dekter finished in eighth and 10th places, as well.
Paul made another scoring finish for Purdue in only his second weekend of competition in the 200 backstroke, with a third-place finish and a time of 1:50.27. Jackson and freshman David Hughes finished in eighth and 10th places.
Epping, again, was the top Purdue finisher in the 500 free race with a time of 4:35.79, as he inches toward Purdue alumnus Matthew Martin's freshman record of 4:27.41. Drejer finished the race with a time of 4:40.18 for ninth place and Martens was 10th in 9:40.69.
Bessenyei had his best individual finish of the day in the 200 breaststroke with a first-place finish and a time of 2:01.03. Juniors Mike Miller and Gui Rego finished the race in fourth and eighth place with times of 2:04.48 and 2:07.89.
In the final swimming event of the day, Diaz, Wright, Sayce and Crowley finished the 400 freestyle relay in third with a time of 3:04.00.
On the diving boards, freshman Clay Davis finished third on the 1-meter board with a score of 260.65 and sixth on the 3-meter board with a score of 245.85. Sophomore Eric Warrick finished fifth on the 1-meter board with a total of 242.90 points and third on the 3-meter with a score of 302.10. Senior Kevin Young earned a sixth-place finish on the 1-meter board with a score of 233.90 and seventh place on the 3-meter board with a total of 221.17 points.
The Boilermakers will return to the pool on Friday and Saturday, Feb. 1 & 2, when they host the annual 'Quad Meet' with the women's team at the Boilermaker Aquatic Center. The men will take on two more Big Ten teams in Minnesota and Wisconsin. Meet times are set for 6 p.m. on Friday and noon on Saturday.
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