Jan. 9, 2004
TUCSON, Ariz. - Louis Paul, Blake Scholz and Giordan Pogioli all captured wins Friday afternoon at a triangular meet against the No. 6 Arizona Wildcats and the Missouri Tigers. Despite the individual successes, the Boilermakers could not pull ahead of the Wildcats but managed to overwhelm the Tigers in a 174-62 rout.
Arizona finished the day with two wins, beating Purdue 134-105 and Missouri, 167-66. Purdue's dual record now stands at 3-3.
"We got beat up a little, but the guys are still in good spirits," said head coach Dan Ross. "I expect that we'll swim much faster tomorrow against Arizona State, a team that we match up with pretty well. It's also going to be an interesting meet for our guys to experience since we'll be swimming in short-course meters, and that's the same format the NCAA is utilizing this season."
Paul had the best individual day of any Boilermaker, winning the 200-yard individual medley and receiving runner-up status in the 200 backstroke and with the 400 medley relay squad. Paul finished nearly a second ahead of second place Dave Rollins of Arizona, with Paul clocking a 1:53.31 to Rollins' 1:54.11.
Paul also placed ahead of Rollins in the 200 back, but couldn't swim past Arizona's Simon Burnett, who touched the wall first in 1:51.60. Paul's second-place time was 1:52.95.
The Australia native opened the triangular by leading the 400 medley relay team to a second place showing. Paul's 100-yard back leg was timed at 51.75 seconds, as the team finished in 3:26.92. Tamas Bessenyei, Ignatius Goh and Andre Pereira were also part of the silver-medal effort.
Purdue would go on to fare much better in the closing 400 free relay, sweeping the top two spots. Pereira, along with Eric Prugh, Trey Smith and Adam King captured the top position at 3:13.38, while the quartet of John Arzner, Kyle Jackson, Ian Lehman and Mark Enoch took second in 3:14.71.
Freestylers Prugh and Goh collected points on their own as well, with Prugh taking third in the 200 free (1:43.59) and Goh reaching the same position in the 50 free (21.67).
Distance freestylers Steuart Martens and Mark Wolfred secured the No. 2 and 3 spots in the 1,000 free, as Martens outraced his teammate 9:41.52 to 9:43.24. Martens later came away with runner-up honors in the 500 free, recording a time of 4:42.37.
Scholz won for the third time this season in the 200 butterfly, coming across in 1:52.43, which was more than a second faster than Arizona's Lyndon Ferner's mark of 1:53.68. Nick Cenci copped third-place with his time of 1:55.19.
Pogioli scored the final individual victory for the Boilermakers, coming from behind in the 200 breaststroke to beat out Arizona's Greg Owen by .19 seconds. Owen held a significant lead of .77 seconds after the first 100 yards, but Pogioli outraced his opponent down the backstretch, 1:03.64 to 1:04.76. The victory was Pogioli's third of the season.
Clay Davis proved to be Purdue's top diver, finishing third off the 1- and 3-meter springboards. Davis, a former Big Ten Diver of the Week, scored a 279.67 off the 1-meter and a 282.90 off the high board. Arizona's John Collier swept the diving competition with scores of 340.50 (1-meter) and 312.22 (3-meter).
The men's team returns to action Saturday for a 2 p.m. dual meet in Tempe, Ariz., against the Arizona State Sun Devils. The women's diving team is in Indiana on Saturday to begin the first half of its dual with the Hoosiers; the swimmers face their intrastate rivals on Friday, Jan. 16 at 6 p.m.