March 29, 2003
AUSTIN, Texas - Freshman Giordan Pogioli highlighted Purdue's Saturday afternoon at the NCAA Swimming Championships in Austin, Texas. The native of Peoria, Illinois placed 18th in the preliminaries of the 200-yard breaststroke, recording a personal best time of 1 minute, 57.98 seconds.
Pogioli also posted a new personal record in Friday's 100 breast, clocking a time of 55.37. His strong outing completed a solid showing for the Boilermakers at the NCAA's, with teammates Louis Paul (200 individual medley) and Tamas Bessenyei (100 breast) both earning honorable mention All-America honors during the three-day tournament.
During Saturday's prelims none of the Boilermakers were able to advance to the finals; Pogioli was the closest, placing just .36 seconds behind the 16th-place finisher, Oakland's Scott Dickens. Bessenyei placed 24th in the 200 breast at 1:59.10, while Paul recorded a 26th-place time of 1:46.72 in the 200 back.
Purdue finished the tournament with seven points. Bessenyei collected six of those points Friday after placing 12th in the 100 breast, and Paul picked up the team's first point with a 16th-place showing in the 200 IM.
The men's team's season finale, the U.S. Senior Nationals, starts Tuesday, April 1 in Indianapolis, Ind.