March 28, 2003
AUSTIN, Texas - Tamas Bessenyei provided the Boilermakers with a quality run in the 100 breaststroke Friday night at the NCAA Swimming Championships in Austin, Texas. The Hungarian native scored an 11th-place time of 54.17 seconds, earning his second career honorable mention All-America citation in the process.
Bessenyei placed 15th in the 100 breast at last year's NCAA Championships with a time of 54.53.
The junior qualified for the finals after completing the preliminary heat in 54.16, which tied him for 12th with Hawaii's Cheyne Bloch. Boilermaker freshman Giordan Pogioli wasn't able to meet his teammate in the finals, but did post a new career best of 55.37. Texas' Brendan Hansen set a new NCAA meet record in the 100 breast with a gold-medal time of 51.96.
Sophomore Louis Paul, who scored a 16th place showing Thursday in the 200 individual medley, took 30th in the prelims of the 100 backstroke, finishing the course in 49.18. Paul will also compete in the 200 back on Saturday, while Bessenyei and Pogioli face off again in the 200 breast.
The Boilermakers have earned seven points through two days of competition and are currently tied for 25th with Penn State and SMU. Auburn leads all teams with 387 points.
Swimming preliminaries begin each day at 11 a.m., and are followed by the diving preliminaries at 1 p.m. Finals for both swimming and diving begin every night at 7 p.m. Results from the NCAA Championships are posted shortly after the end of each event on the University of Texas web site, www.texassports.com.