Nov. 16, 2002
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - The No. 18 Purdue men's swimming and diving team easily defeated both Georgia Tech and Cincinnati in a two-day double-dual meet at the Boilermaker Aquatic Center on Friday and Saturday. Saturday's final scores were Purdue 270 - 77 Cincinnati, Purdue 214.5 - 138.5 Georgia Tech, and Georgia Tech 245 - 96 Cincinnati. With the two wins, the Boilermakers improve to 6-0 on the year with only one meet left during the fall semester.
"Our goal during the fall season was to go undefeated," said Purdue head coach Dan Ross. "With eight competitions in five weeks, we've done that so far. We also wanted to be ranked in the top 25 and we got that last week. So, we've met our goals and everything seems to be going well.
"We were hoping for some closer and more tight meets, but so far we haven't had that. I don't know if that means that we're better than we'd anticipated or if the teams we're competing against aren't as strong as we'd thought. But, either way, we're happy where we are and we'll try to continue that at Notre Dame on Friday."
Purdue began the weekend with a very strong showing on Friday night, as the Boilermakers won eight of ten events and set two Doris Z. Holloway Pool records.
In the first race of Friday night, the Boilermaker team of David Hughes, Tamas Bessenyei, Tad Sayce and Ignatuis Goh finished first with a time of 1:31.77 in the 200 medley relay.
Other members of the Old Gold and Black finishing first were Kyle Jackson in the 200 free, Louis Paul in the 100 backstroke, Bessenyei in the 100 breaststroke, Blake Scholz in the 200 butterfly, Goh in the 50 free, and Paul in the 200 IM. Clayton Davis also tallied a first-place finish with 308.70 points on the 3-meter diving board.
Bessenyei and Scholz set pool records for Purdue in the 100 breast and the 200 fly. Bessenyei bettered his own record of 55.76 by 0.15 seconds, while Scholz broke the record previously held by Pat Torpey of Wisconsin with a new time of 1:49.56.
Setting two pool records for the weekend was Shilo Ayalon from Georgia Tech with records in the 1,000 free and the 400 IM. Justin Mortimer of Minnesota previously held both records.
Friday nights scores ended with the Boilermakers leading the Bearcats, 142-41 and the Yellow Jackets, 113.5-72.5. Georgia Tech led the Bearcats 128-52.
On Saturday, the Old Gold and Black came back and wrapped up the meet with more strong finishes, as they won six of nine events. Both relay teams finished first, as Goh, Paul, Sayce and Jeremy Wright tallied a time of 1:23.59 in the 200 freestyle relay and the team of Paul, Sayce, Will Seelbach and Wright were first in the 400 free relay with a time of 3:03.61.
Finishing first in other events were Clay Davis on the 1-meter board with a score of 271.20, Wright in the 100 free in 46.53, Paul in the 200 backstroke with a time of 1:48.76, and Bessenyei in the 200 breaststroke with a time of 2:00.50.
The Boilermaker men will return to the pool on Friday, Nov. 22, when they travel to South Bend for their final fall meet of the year against the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame. The meet will begin at 6 p.m. at the Rolfs Aquatic Center.
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