Boilermakers Set Sail for Big Tens in ColumbusBoilermakers Set Sail for Big Tens in Columbus

Boilermakers Set Sail for Big Tens in Columbus

Purdue men's swimming gets the honor of closing out a busy 12-day stretch of competition around the conference as the Boilermakers visit Columbus for their opportunity to make a mark at the Big Ten Championships.

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MEET INFORMATION 
Purdue Men's Swimming at the Big Ten Championships
 
Tuesday, March 2 to Saturday, March 6
Opening Night Relays at 5 p.m. ET
11 a.m. Prelims, 6:30 p.m. Finals / All Sessions on BTN+
McCorkle Aquatic Pavilion / Columbus, Ohio

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Purdue men's swimming gets the honor of closing out a busy 12-day stretch of competition around the conference as the Boilermakers visit Columbus for their opportunity to make a mark at the Big Ten Championships.

With women's swimming and all diving action completed last week in Minneapolis and West Lafayette, the men's races take center stage at Ohio State's McCorkle Aquatic Pavilion. The conference opted to split up swimming events from diving events this year in order to better comply with COVID-19 and social-distancing protocols.

The schedule for swimming has been expanded to five days and nine sessions. Especially for relays, more heats will be utilized to better spread out the competitors. Action in Columbus begins Tuesday at 6 p.m. ET with the customary opening night relays – the 200 medley and 800 freestyle. Events continue through Saturday evening.

Highlighted by Brandon Loschiavo's third career Big Ten title in platform diving, the Boilermakers earned 160 team points in the diving events last week. Purdue ranked third in the team points compiled by the divers. Meanwhile, Loschiavo's victory on the tower also assured that the Boilermakers would have a Big Ten champion for the seventh consecutive season dating back to Lyam Dias winning the 200 breaststroke at the 2015 championships in Iowa City. That's easily the longest streak in program history.
 
NEW LOOK EVENT SCHEDULE & ORDER OF EVENTS FOR SWIMMING
Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday
200 Medley Relay
800 Free Relay


 
200 IM
50 Free
500 Free
400 Medley Relay
 
100 Fly
400 IM
200 Free

 
100 Back
100 Breast
200 Fly
200 Free Relay
 
100 Free
1650 Free
200 Back
200 Breast
400 Free Relay

HIGHEST RANKED BOILERMAKERS
According to data compiled by CollegeSwimming.com, Nikola Aćin's winning time in the 50 freestyle (19.53) at the Jan. 23 triple dual in Madison is the best in the Big Ten this season. His career-best mark at Purdue is 19.51. He was an A finalist in the 50 free last year at Big Tens and set three freshman records in his debut at the championships in 2019. Meanwhile, Trent Pellini has finished among the top five in the A final of the 100 breast at Big Tens each of the last two seasons. He's ranked third (52.43) in the Big Ten in the 100 breast this year.

2020 HIGHLIGHTS FROM BIG TENS
Purdue opened the championships by winning its first relay medal at Big Tens since 2009. All four members of the bronze medal-winning quartet are back this season. Michael Juengel, Pellini, Ryan Hrosik and Aćin have already accounted for the third-fastest time (1:26.00) in program history this year after posting the second best (1:24.44) last season at Big Tens. This year's mark is the best in the Big Ten so far.
The Boilermakers also eclipsed team records in the 200 and 800 free relays last season. Dan Ross could also opt to enter the same quartets in those events again this year. Dating back to 2019, the Boilermakers have set team records in all five relays. Aćin has been part of all five records. Pellini has contributed to four of the five.
Nick Sherman's breakout stretch began with his anchor split of 1:33.95 on the 800 free relay. Ten days later at Purdue's last chance meet, he qualified for the NCAA Championships with a time of 1:53.31 in the 200 breast, moving into third place in program history. Brett Riley and Sherman both scored in all three of their events at Big Tens a year ago. Sherman is ranked fifth in the Big Ten in the 200 free (1:36.57) this season.
Fifteen Boilermakers scored in at least one individual event at Big Tens last season. Ryan Lawrence won the B final of the 50 free.

2020 BIG TENS: CAREER BESTS THAT RANKED AMONG PURDUE'S ALL-TIME LEADERS
Michael Juengel – 3rd in 100 Back (47.00)
Trent Pellini – 4th in 200 Free (1:36.06)
Nick Sherman – 5th in 200 Breast (1:55.77), 5th in 200 IM (1:44.91)
Ryan Lawrence – 6th in 50 Free (19.69)
Brett Riley – 8th in 400 IM (3:48.24), 11th in 200 Back (1:44.24), 12th in 200 IM (1:46.60)
Elliot Cooper – 8th in 20 Fly (1:46.37)
Nate Barsanti – 8th in 100 Fly (47.53)
Skyler Younkin – 11th in 200 Fly (1:47.00), 13th in 100 Fly (47.89)
Keelan Hart – 12th in 100 Free (43.90)
Ryan Hrosik – 13th in 100 Free (43.92), 14th in 100 Fly (47.92)
 
ACTIVE CAREER SCORING LEADERS AT THE BIG TEN CHAMPIONSHIPS
Boilermaker Career Pts 2021 2020 2019 2018 2017
Brandon Loschiavo 249 75 DNC 55 48 71
Ben Bramley 159 54 43 62 NA NA
Greg Duncan 144 31 59 54 NA NA
Trent Pellini 125 ?? 38 51 36 NA
Nikola Aćin 86 ?? 37 49 NA NA
Michael Juengel 28 ?? 28 NA NA NA
Ryan Hrosik 27 ?? 18 9 NA NA
Nikola Bjelajac 26 ?? 11 15 -- NA
Nick Sherman 25 ?? 25 -- NA NA
Brett Riley 25 ?? 25 -- NA NA
 
LAST TIME IN COLUMBUS
The men's swimming portion of Big Tens returns to the Ohio's capital city for the first time since 2017. The Boilermakers won two Big Ten titles and seven records that season. The victories by Marat Amaltdinov (200 breast) and Steele Johnson (platform) on the final night of the meet marked the first time since 2009 that Purdue won a swimming title and diving title in the same year.
Of the seven records Purdue set in Columbus four years ago, only two still stand – Johnson's 1-meter team benchmark and his pool record on the platform. It was the 2017 team's 800 free relay record that Nikola Bjelajac, Pellini, Aćin and Sherman teamed up to take down last year, dropping the benchmark by 1.89 seconds.

YEAR SIX OF THE CURRENT SCORING BREAKDOWN 
A Final: 32-28-27-26-25-24-23-22 
B Final: 20-17-16-15-14-13-12-11 
C Final: 9-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 (and 17th through 24th in Diving Prelims) 
Relays: 64-56-54-52-50-48-46-44-40-34-32-30-28