Jan. 30, 2004
MADISON, Wis. - Purdue's men's swimming and diving team earned wins from Tamas Bessenyei and Clayton Davis Friday night, but trail the No. 12 Wisconsin Badgers and the No. 8 Minnesota Golden Gophers heading into Saturday's competitions.
Wisconsin leads Purdue 104-80, while Minnesota is up by a score of 117-68.
The women's team also trails their ranked Big Ten rivals after the first day of competition. In addition to facing No. 11 Wisconsin and No. 24 Minnesota, the women are also battling Illinois.
The women trail the Badgers 124-61, the Golden Gophers 110-75, but lead the Fighting Illini 105.5-79.5.
"Both Wisconsin and Minnesota are well worth their rankings, so we will definitely need to regroup before tomorrow," said men's head coach Dan Ross, whose team is ranked just outside the top 25 in the latest coaches' poll.
Women's head coach Cathy Wright-Eger maintains a similar attitude.
"We're hanging in there right now, and we plan to comeback on day two," said Wright-Eger. "We need to keep plugging away just like we would at the Big Ten Championships."
On the men's side, Bessenyei and Giordan Pogioli again finished one-two in the 100-yard breaststroke. The Boilermaker tandem has accomplished this feat several times this season, most recently at No. 13 Arizona State on Jan. 10.
Ross was greatly impressed with Davis, who came back to win the 1-meter competition after hitting his head on the board. Josh Karshen collected second-place points in this event and J.R. Hillis placed fourth.
Wright Eger said tonight's meet was like a roller coaster ride. Among the highs were the second-place showings of Erica Chandler in the 1,000 freestyle, Tracy Duchac in the 50 free and Carrie McCambridge in the 3-meter diving discipline.
"Erica stepped it up big time tonight," said Wright-Eger. "She had a phenomenal swim in the 1,000 and was just out-touched by (Wisconsin's) Carly Piper. Erica swam with her the whole way. It was a great swim for her and built up her confidence."
Piper is one of the top swimmers in the Big Ten. She currently holds the conference's top times in every freestyle race ranging from the 200 to the 1,650.
Wright-Eger also was pleased with the second-place finish of the 800 free relay team, which was without regular starters Christine Leupold and Katie Seleskie. Katharine Telfer filled in nicely for Leupold, providing the team with a second-leg split time of 1:51.79.
The Boilermakers will complete their two-day stay in Wisconsin Saturday at 1 p.m.