Men's Swimming & Diving Finishes Eighth At 2002 Big Ten Championships

March 2, 2002

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - The Purdue men's swimming and diving team finished in eighth place tonight with 243 points at the conclusion of the 2002 Men's Big Ten Championships. The Boilermakers tie their 2001 finish for placing.

The final breakdown of points for each Big Ten school is as follows:

 1 University of Minnesota 711.50 2 University of Michigan 636.50 3 Penn State University 442.50 4 Northwestern University 341 5 University of Wisconsin 335.50 6 The Ohio State University 306 7 Indiana University 304 8 Purdue University 243 9 The University of Iowa 195 10 Michigan State University 122

In the evening's first event which was not swum during the morning prelims, freshman Rion Epping scored in the top eight with an NCAA provisional B-cut time of 15:21.22 for seventh place in the 1,650-yard freestyle. Also swimming the 1,650 were freshman Steuart Martens with a 20th-place finish in 15:46.57, sophomore Garth Bringman in 23rd place with a time of 15:57.29 and senior Tomasz Drejer in 26th with a time of 16:05.80.

Freshman Louis Paul was the only 200 back finals qualifier for Purdue. In his night swim, he finished 11th in 1:47.56.

Sophomore Jeremy Wright scored in his third individual event tonight in the 100-yard freestyle with a 14th-place finish in 45.08. His morning swim time was slightly faster at 44.78.

Big Ten champion hopeful Tamas Bessenyei finished third in the 200-yard breaststroke tonight with a time of 1:57.37, after qualifying in second place during the morning prelims. Bessenyei did, however, record an NCAA automatic A-cut time in both sessions.

In the final relay event of the weekend, Purdue's Jon Duncan, Wright, Javier Diaz and Tad Sayce finished eighth in the 400 freestyle relay with an NCAA provisional B-cut time of 2:59.31.

Sophomore Eric Warrick added his name to the Purdue history book today, becoming the first men's diver to score points on the 10-meter platform at the Big Ten Championships. Warrick qualified for the evening's round this morning and held on for his sixth-place finish, with a score of 383.25.

The Boilermakers will return to the pool for additional training before the NCAA Championships in Athens, Ga., March 28-30, 2002. Follow the Boilermakers and their progress towards the NCAA's on www.purduesports.com.

-P-