Dec. 5, 2003
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - The dual meet between the Purdue Boilermakers and No. 15 Texas A&M Friday night at the Boilermaker Aquatic Center came down to the final event, but the Aggies managed to escape with the 129-114 victory. Purdue and Texas A&M were separated by two points heading into the 400 freestyle relay, but the Aggies grabbed the top two spots to leave West Lafayette with an emotional victory.
The Aggies were led to the victory stand by their 'A' squad of Ozzie Gardner, Josh Hill, Scott Mueller and Matt Rose who touched the wall in 3:02.36. Texas A&M also managed to grab the second-place points with Ross Collins, Chris Nelan, Calvin Zielsdorf and Scott Newman finishing in 3:04.70.
"I'm disappointed with the loss, but it was a very exciting meet," said head coach Dan Ross. "We needed to capture seven wins, but unfortunately we just missed reaching that goal, and against a team like Texas A&M the margin of error is very small. Overall, I think our swimmers raced very well and again our divers did an outstanding job."
Purdue had to claw its way back into the meet, trailing by nine points with two races left: the 200 breaststroke and the 400 free relay. Sophomore Giordan Pogioli and senior Tamas Bessenyei made up seven of those points, in reducing the Aggies lead to two, with a one-two sweep of the 200 breast. Pogioli clocked a first-place time of 2:00.67, which doubled as a NCAA consideration mark; Bessenyei was close behind at 2:01.99.
Purdue opened the meet with a win in the 400 medley relay; however, an Aggies miscue assisted the Boilermakers' win when the 'A' team of Rose, Alfredo Jacobo, Devin Saez and Dan Blacnchard was disqualified after Blanchard left the blocks early. Regardless of the Texas A&M foul, Purdue's top team of Louis Paul, Bessenyei, Iggy Goh and Trey Smith still recorded a season-best time of 3:20.10. Purdue also received third-place points from the squad of David Hughes, Pogioli, Blake Scholz and John Arzner.
The 200-free duo of Eric Prugh and Kyle Jackson also provided an early scoring boost for the Boilermakers, placing first and third. Prugh earned nine points with his winning time of 1:40.41, while Jackson touched in 1:42.68.
Heading into this meet, Ross speculated that diving would be a major factor in determining the Boilermakers' success, and it definitely was early on as the trio of Clay Davis, Steven LoBue and J.R. Hillis swept the top three positions in the 1-meter competition. Davis placed first off the board with a pool-record score of 319.73, breaking a two-week old record set at the Purdue Invitational by Iowa's Timo Klami. LoBue and Hillis rounded up the second and third place points, with scores of 301.95 and 297.52.
The Boilermaker divers gave the team a four-point lead (58-54) heading into the meet's first break, and then increased the Purdue lead to nine points after the 3-meter competition was completed. LoBue led the Boilermakers with a first-place varsity record score of 354.90, but Texas A&M prevented the three-way sweep by collecting the second and third-place positions. Josh Karshen took the fourth spot with a score of 310.12 and Davis placed fifth with a mark of 302.10.
"I think my guys did great considering we had a few days off, and sometimes it tough to come back from a period of rest," said diving coach Wenbo Chen. "I thought we should have fared better in the 3-meter, but the dives are of higher degree of difficulty and again I kind of think the days off may have hurt. Going into the meet, I told them to calm down, to trust their training, and to just relax and enjoy the home pool advantage, and overall I think they accomplished all of that."
Purdue grabbed its biggest lead of the night at 18-points following the eighth event, the 200 butterfly, as Scholz, Nick Cenci and Bessenyei stole three of the top four positions and 14 of 19 available points. Scholz came in first with a mark of 1:50.60, Saez of Texas A&M slipped into the second spot at 1:52.00, while Cenci (1:54.26) and Bessenyei (1:54.69) captured spots three and four. Bessneyei's mark was a season best.
Despite the significant deficit, the Aggies managed to roar back late in the meet, capturing consecutive wins in the 100 free, 200 back and 500 free. Texas A&M was led by Ozzie Gardner and Blanchard in the 100 free; Josh Hill took the top spot in the 200 back, upsetting Paul by over two seconds, and Mark Solomon and Scott Mueller gave the Aggies a one-two punch in the 500 free. After 11 events, the Aggies had turned their 18-point defecit into a nine point lead.
Purdue's dual versus Texas A&M served as it's final meet of 2003. The team's next meet is on Jan. 9 in Tucson, Ariz., where it will face Missouri and No. 8 Arizona. On Jan. 10, the Old Gold and Black head to Tempe for a triangular featuring No. 11 Virginia and Arizona State.