Feb. 23, 2003
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - The No. 25 Purdue women's swimming and diving team finished with 403 points for fifth place at the 2003 Big Ten Women's Swimming and Diving Championships at its home pool, the Boilermaker Aquatic Center. With 403 points and fifth place, the Old Gold and Black recorded their best finish since 1996 and their most points since 1992.
"We are just ecstatic with how we finished today," said Purdue head swimming coach Cathy Wright-Eger. "It was a great Big Ten meet; close at the end and we had a great day today to finish it out. I really attribute that to our Hawaii training because we were able to come back on the third and fourth days and still swim really strong.
"We recorded two NCAA 'A'-cuts, seven varsity records, 21 'B'-cuts and about 42 lifetime-best swims. That is just phenomenal and I couldn't be happier. We're just so excited about where we are and our season is not over."
The Old Gold and Black started the evening's final session with freshman Erica Chandler tallying her second top-eight finish of the week with a time of 16:48.21 in the 1,650 freestyle. Senior Shannon Funk finished in 12th in the 1,650 free with a time of 16:50.29. Both Chandler's and Funk's times were good enough for the NCAA 'B'-cut mark. Sophomore Lindsey Meier swam a time of 17:12.10 in the 1,650 and freshman Kristin Melville finished 31st with a time of 18:21.01.
In the 200 backstroke finals, senior Lisa Dolansky finished fourth with a time of 1:59.57, another NCAA 'B'-cut mark, and sophomore Brandy Keever finished eighth with a time of 2:02.76 in her first-ever Big Ten night swim. In the consolation finals, sophomore Lydia DeNuccio finished 16th in her first Big Ten night swim with a time of 2:06.35.
Junior Jenni Bean finished eighth in the 100 freestyle with a time of 50.94, an NCAA 'B'-cut mark, in her third top-eight swim of the weekend. Finishing as the top consolation swim finisher in ninth place, senior Kim Paradeise finished in 50.62.
In the 200 breaststroke, Big Ten 100 breaststroke champion Lindsay Lange finished eighth with a time of 2:19.57.
Senior Patricia Finnerty was the Boilermakers' top finisher in the 200 butterfly with a night swim of 2:02.83 for seventh place and junior Autumn Sample finished 13th with a time of 2:04.02 in the consolation finals heat.
For the first time, women's platform diving was a scored event at the Big Ten Championships and freshman Carrie McCambridge finished sixth with a score of 387.40 for a varsity record and a season-best.
In the final event of the evening, the Boilermakers finished third in the 400 freestyle relay with a time of 3:22.12, another varsity record time. The team of Bean, Lange, sophomore Tracy Duchac and Paradeise broke the record that stood since the 2001 Big Ten Championships, recorded by Dolansky, Paradeise, Bromley and Lakos. The time is also good enough for the 'B'-cut mark at NCAA's.
Following the meet, the Big Ten's Jennifer Heppel was present to present the awards for First and Second Team All-Big Ten. Making the first team for the Boilermakers was Lange. On the second team were Dolansky, Duchac, Finnerty and Paradeise.
The Boilermakers will return to their home pool once again on Monday to begin training for the 2003 Women's NCAA Championships at Auburn. The competition kicks off on March 20th.
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