Nov. 23, 2003
COLLEGE STATION, Texas - The Purdue women's swimming and diving team knocked off two top-20 teams en route to its fifth-place showing at the Texas A&M Fall Invitational. The Boilermakers collected 1,233 points, surpassing the point totals of No. 19 Notre Dame (599) and No. 17 Virginia (955).
"This team gained a tremendous amount of confidence over the three-day meet, and learned a number of lessons that will help us be a better swim team" said head coach Cathy Wright-Eger. "These women are extremely coachable. There wasn't a race that went by, in which one of the athletes didn't come back to the coaching staff for advice. To see them go back out and make changes and do better convinces me that we are ahead of where I thought we would be at this point in the season."
The Boilermakers completed the meet with 18 NCAA 'B' cuts and two varsity records, one of which was set Sunday by diver Carrie McCambridge off the platform board.
The sophomore sensation, who scored three top-eight finishes this weekend, finished second in the platform competition with a mark of 408.40. Her score was just .45 points behind winner Taryn Ignacio of Florida State.
Ignacio's Seminoles, the No. 20 team in the nation place fourth with 1,337.5 points. Topping the final standings were No. 11 UCLA (2,077), No. 17 Texas A&M (1,570.5) and No. 8 SMU (1,450).
The five NCAA 'B' cuts recorded Sunday by the Boilermakers all came courtesy of their freestylers. In the 100-meter freestyle freshman Susan Hentschel led all Old Gold and Black swimmers with her eighth-place time of 56.77, she was followed by upperclassmen Katie Seleskie (57.13) and Tracy Duchac (57.21). Jenni Bean just missed NCAA consideration with her 13th place time of 57.31.
In the 400 freestyle relay, Duchac, Seleskie and Hentschel again clocked an NCAA 'B' time with their third-place mark of 3:24.59. Also part of the bronze-medal winning relay was leadoff swimmer Christine Leupold, who recorded two top-eight showings of her own this weekend.
Sophomore Erica Chandler, secured two impressive finishes during the final day of competition, taking ninth in the 1,500-meter free with an NCAA 'B' mark of 16:46.92 and placing 12th in the 200 breaststroke (2:36.58). Rookie Aurora Belk also gave a solid performance in the 200 breast, placing 16th at 2:39.63.
"The team is on an absolute high coming out of this meet," said Wright-Eger. "I expect good things from this team during the second part of the season, as the swimmers and divers continue to develop into elite student-athletes."
The Boilermakers will rest for a good portion of this holiday week as team members will take time off to celebrate Thanksgiving with their families. Purdue returns to action on Dec. 4, when it heads out to Washington state for the U.S. Swimming and Diving Open. The Boilermakers return home on Tuesday, Jan. 6 for a dual meet against Arkansas at 3 p.m.; a meet that was originally slated for Jan. 3.