March 20, 2003
AUBURN, Ala. - Purdue's women's swim team closed out the first day of competition at the NCAA Championships with 10 points and had all five of its swimmers earn honorable mention All-America citations for finishing among the nation's best in both the 200 freestyle and 400 medley relays.
Last season, the Boilermakers scored only 11 points during the entire three-day tournament.
Purdue posted a pair of top-15 finishes at the NCAA's, which is being hosted by the University of Auburn. The 200 free relay squad earned a 14th place showing of 1 minute, 32.63 seconds and the 400 medley quartet posted a season-best mark of 3:41.29, which placed it 15th.
"We're off to a very good start," said Purdue head coach Cathy Wright-Eger. "Everyone has already received honorable mention All-America status, both of our relay teams were able to put some points on the scoreboard, and we're currently among the top-25 teams."
The Boilermakers are tied with North Carolina for 22nd place after six events. Host Auburn leads the field with 168.5 points, with Georgia far behind in second place (123 points). Texas (114) and SMU (104) are the only other teams which have broken the century mark.
Purdue's 200 free team's final mark was slightly slower than its 15th-place preliminary time (1:32.59); however, the Boilermakers were still able to move up one place in the championship round, beating out Arkansas and Florida State. The Boilermaker's solid performance, which earned the squad six points, was the best ever by a Purdue 200 free squad at the NCAA's.
Senior Lisa Dolansky opened the 200 free relay with a clip of 23.35, and was followed by senior Lindsay Lange (23.07), sophomore Tracy Duchac (23.31) and senior Kim Paradeise (22.98). The three Purdue seniors are veterans of the NCAA Championships, while Duchac is making her first postseason appearance.
Duchac also competed alongside her older colleagues in the preliminaries of the 50 yard freestyle, and finished tied with Lange for the team's best mark at 23.37. The sophomore recently established a new varsity record of 23.05 in the 50 free at the Big Ten Championships.
The 400 medley team finished its prelim race with a mark of 3:42.10 and improved nicely in the finals as expected, finishing at 3:41.29. Dolansky bolted out of the starting gates, turning in a mark of 55.75 in the backstroke portion of the race. Lange scored a clip of 1:00.04 in the breaststroke leg; Patricia Finnerty followed with a time of 55.08 in the butterfly and Paradeise closed the race with a 50.42 freestyle time.
These same four upperclassmen set the current school record in the 400 medley of 3:41.12 at the 2002 Big Ten Championships.
The Boilermakers will compete in four events Friday, including the 400 medley relay (Dolansky, Lange, Finnerty and Paradeise), 100 butterfly (Finnerty), 100 breaststroke (Lange) and the 100 back (Dolansky). Lange is the No. 4 seed in the 100 breast (1:00.42), giving the women's team its best chance to win a first ever NCAA individual title. The 200 medley team enters Friday's prelim as the No. 7 seed.
"Lindsay looked real strong today, and if she keeps swimming at this pace then she'll easily finish among the top-8 in tomorrow's race," said Wright-Eger. "She recorded a couple double-0 times (1:00.00) today, which was good to see, but her goal is to break under that one-minute mark."
Swimming preliminaries begin each day at 11:00 a.m., and are followed by the diving preliminaries at 1:00 p.m. Finals for both swimming and diving begin every night at 7:00 p.m. Results from the NCAA Championships are posted shortly after the end of each event on the Auburn University web site, www.auburntigers.com.