WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- Purdue women's swimming and diving's first of many trips to Columbus this season has the No. 24 Boilermakers eastbound for a Friday afternoon triple dual with Cincinnati and Ohio State.
Action gets underway at 4 p.m. at the McCorkle Aquatic Pavilion Friday. Purdue's men's divers will also be in action Friday vs. the Buckeyes and Bearcats.
The Boilermakers, who are ranked 24th in the inaugural CSCAA poll of the season released this week, have not competed head-to-head against Cincinnati since winning a triple dual with Georgia Tech and UC in November 2002 at the Boilermaker Aquatic Center. However, the Bearcats did participate in the Purdue Invitational in the fall of 2010 and 2012.
Ohio State is receiving votes in the CSCAA Top 25 released this week. Led by No. 6 Minnesota, six Big Ten teams are ranked this week. Purdue has another triple dual on the schedule later this season when it takes on Minnesota and Northwestern the weekend of Jan. 30-31 in Minneapolis.
With the McCorkle Aquatic Pavilion also hosting the Ohio State Invitational, USA Diving Winter Nationals, Women's Big Ten Championships and Zone C Diving Championships, Purdue will be making numerous trips to Columbus this season.
Senior diver and Grafton, Ohio, native MacKenzie Tweardy could end up competing as many as five times in Columbus during her final collegiate season. She won the platform diving competition at the Zones meet in Columbus last year to qualify for the NCAA Championships for the first time.
The Boilermakers may choose to send selected to swimmers to the OSU Winter Invite in mid-February as well.
Traditionally, the final meet of the fall semester schedule as well as the Big Ten Championships produce the greatest number of top times for Purdue swimmers. Therefore, many of the Boilers' fastest times this year should end up occurring in Columbus. McCorkle features a 10-lane pool, but only the traditional eight lanes are expected to be utilized for racing Friday at the triple dual.
Dating back to the 2006 Women's Big Ten Championships held in Columbus, seven members of the Purdue women's program have teamed up to establish 16 records (program and freshman combined) at the McCorkle Aquatic Pavilion. Carly Mercer set a new 100 freestyle benchmark at the 2013 Ohio State Invitational. Rhiannon Sheets broke seven records (program and freshman combined) at the 2011 Ohio State Invitational, the same meet where Emily Fogle eclipsed the 200 breaststroke mark for the third time.
Among Purdue's active men's divers, Jamie Bissett, Nate Cox and Sean Mokhtari all qualified for the NCAAs Championships with their performances at the Zones meet in Columbus last year. Like Tweardy, Cox was also victorious from the platforms.
In 2010, alumnus David Boudia won the 1- and 3-meter NCAA championships as well as the 3-meter and platform Big Ten titles at McCorkle. Fellow alumnus David Colturi was the conference champion on 1-meter that year to deny Boudia three consecutive sweeps of the diving events at Big Tens from 2009-11.
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