Feb. 17, 2010
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - The 22nd-ranked Purdue women's swimming and diving team opened the Big Ten Championships with three school-record swims Wednesday evening inside the Boilermaker Aquatic Center.
"We had high expectations coming into the meet," head coach John Klinge said. "We're pretty happy with how things have started off. We just have to maintain some momentum and make the most of every session."
The Boilermakers opened the meet by finishing fifth in the 200-yard medley relay with a school-record and NCAA provisional-qualifying time of 1 minute, 40.21 seconds. Allie Smith, Jessica Davis, Lisa Butler and Ariel Martin teamed up to take down the previous record of 1:40.37 set by Lisa Dolansky, Lindsay Lange, Patricia Finnerty and Kim Paradeise in 2003.
The 800 freestyle relay kept the record breaking going by shattering the previous program-best mark while finishing second. Martin, Lisa Butler, Lauren Roth and Leah Henninger combined to stop the clock in 7:07.95, which destroyed the previous record of 7:17.65 swam by Butler, Roth, Kristen Gilson and Henninger at last year's Big Ten Championships and improves the quartet's standing on the list of provisional qualifiers for the NCAA Championships.
Martin started the 800 freestyle relay with another school record. The junior from Jeffersonville, Ind., completed the first 200 yards in 1:46.15 to better the previous mark of 1:47.81 set by Erica Chandler in 2005.
"It's just awesome to be able to start off a meet this way," Martin said. "I had high expectations for myself, and I've already started to meet them. I've made my goal time and we broke three records in only two swims tonight. I'm just really happy right now and really excited for the rest of the meet. We've all been telling all the newspapers that we were going to be good, but we've already shown that. John is an amazing coach. He knows what he is doing."
The Boilermakers are tied for third in the team race with 62 points after the first session. Defending champion Indiana holds the lead with 72 points, and Minnesota is second with 64. Michigan and Wisconsin are tied with Purdue to round out the top five.
Action continues Thursday with a preliminary session set for 11 a.m. ET to be followed by finals at 6:30 p.m. A complete schedule of events, as well as live results and live video from the championships, can be found at purduesports.com.