Jan. 17, 2003
ANN ARBOR, Mich. - The No. 14 Purdue men's swimming and diving team fell on Friday night in Ann Arbor to the fourth-ranked Michigan Wolverines at Canham Natatorium. It was the first loss of the season for the Boilermakers, as they fall to 7-1 on the year and 2-1 in the Big Ten. The Wolverines improve to 5-2, 2-0.
"Michigan beat us pretty handily," said Purdue head men's swimming coach Dan Ross said. "But, overall, I feel pretty good about the way we raced and that was one of our goals tonight. We really did a good job of battling respectably and we got some points in some races that were really close and we just found a way to do it somehow. I'll be interested to see how we respond to our first loss of the season with another meet tomorrow at Michigan State. I know that Michigan State would like nothing better than to knock off a ranked team, so we'll have to prove that we're deserving of that 14th-place ranking in East Lansing tomorrow."
The Boilermakers began the evening with a second-place finish in the 400 medley relay, as they recorded a season-best time of 3:19.18. Despite only one season-best split time, Louis Paul, Tamas Bessenyei, Tad Sayce and Jeremy Wright found a way to record the year's best finish.
In the 1,650 freestyle, sophomore Rion Epping came away with a third-place finish and a season-best time of 10:35.59, bettering his previous time by more than 13 seconds. Sophomore Steuart Martens and freshman Mark Wolfred came in sixth and seventh, respectively, both with season-best times.
Sophomore Ignatius Goh was the top Purdue finisher in the 50 free in third place, while first-semester freshman Andre Pereira came in fourth and sophomore John Arzner was fifth. Sophomore Adam King swam in exhibition.
Freshman Blake Scholz came away with a huge victory in the 200 individual medley, beating Michigan's Dan Ketchum, by only three-hundredths of a second for a Purdue season-best time. Bessenyei came in fourth, while Dekter finished fifth.
Scholz and Ketchum, however, switched places in the 200 butterfly, as Scholz came in second, followed by Bessenyei and junior Nick Cenci. Junior Ian Lehman swam in the exhibition lane.
Paul came away with a very close victory over Ryan Earhart in the 200 backstroke, finishing with another season-best time of 1:48.51. Jackson finished fourth, while sophomore David Hughes was fifth.
Epping and Martens finished tied for first in the 500 freestyle with a time of 4:40.90, while Wolfred finished third.
The Boilermakers took the Wolverines 1-2-3 in the 200 breaststroke with Bessenyei, freshman Giordan Pogioli and senior Gui Rego. Both Bessenyei and Rego improved on their season-best times.
The Old Gold and Black took second in the second relay of the evening, the 400 freestyle. Sayce, Wright, Seelbach and Jackson finished with a time of 3:05.24 as the Purdue 'A' team, while Scholz, Arzner, Pereira, and Dekter finished third with a time of 3:09.24 as the 'B' team.
On the 1-meter diving board, junior David Hanisch finished third with a score of 250.27, while freshman Bob Hennessey came in fifth with a score of 219.75. On the 3-meter, Hanisch came in third again with a score of 259.12 and Hennessey was sixth with 186.97 points.
The Old Gold and Black will return to the pool on Saturday, when they travel to Michigan State to take on the Spartans at McCaffree Pool at 2 p.m. for another Big Ten dual matchup.
- P -