WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Purdue men's swimming & diving won four medals and set three program records while serving as the host of the Big Ten Championships, a four-day showcase that featured nine Boilermakers scoring in all three of their individual events.
Altogether, 21 Purdue student-athletes scored in at least one individual event at the championship meet. The nine three-event scorers, including all five divers, was a program high since the scoring format expanded to the top 24 finishers in the individual events beginning in 2016.
Jordan Rzepka won silver in both 3-meter and platform diving, becoming the first Boilermaker to medal on a springboard and the tower in the same year since Steele Johnson in 2017. He accounted for 76 team points to share team-high honors with classmate Tyler Downs. The 76 points were the most by a Boilermaker at Big Tens since Johnson's 79 in 2018 and the most by a freshman since Joe Cifelli (76) in 2016.
Purdue won bronze medals in the 200 and 400 freestyle relays, claiming multiple medals in the same year for the first time since 1998. The Boilermakers have won four relay medals over the last three years after earning just one from 2004 to 2019. The three consecutive seasons with a relay medal is a program first since 2001 to 2003.
Nikola Aćin, Brady Samuels and Nick Sherman were part of both medal-winning relays. They also joined Brett Riley among the four Purdue swimmers to score in all three of their individual events. Riley and Sherman accomplished the feat for the third year in a row. Aćin also did it for the third time in his career.
Samuels (100 fly) and Sherman (200 IM) broke their own program records and teamed with Keelan Hart and Aćin to eclipse the 400 free relay benchmark.
Greg Duncan finished fourth on both springboards, giving him six career top-four finishers in four career appearances (eight springboard entries) at the Big Ten Championships. He took over the top spot among the program's active career scoring leaders at Big Tens.
Ben Bramley and Ryan Hrosik joined Aćin and Duncan as Boilermakers to score at Big Tens for the fourth consecutive year. Hrosik has also contributed to a medal-winning relay each of the last three years.
The Boilermakers posted 15 career bests that went into the program record book. All five relay teams also accounted for top-four times in team history. Skyler Younkin and Liam Walker both registered top-five times in the 200 butterfly. Walker joined Rzepka, Samuels and Sherman as Boilermakers to move up the team's all-time leaderboards in multiple events.
Selected Purdue swimmers will race at the Boiler-Make-It NCAA last chance meet on Sunday, March 6. Swimming qualifiers for the men's NCAA Championships will be announced Wednesday, March 9. The NCAA Zone Championships serves as the qualifier for the divers, with the Midwest's Zone C meet set for March 7 to 9 in Ann Arbor.
Altogether, 21 Purdue student-athletes scored in at least one individual event at the championship meet. The nine three-event scorers, including all five divers, was a program high since the scoring format expanded to the top 24 finishers in the individual events beginning in 2016.
Jordan Rzepka won silver in both 3-meter and platform diving, becoming the first Boilermaker to medal on a springboard and the tower in the same year since Steele Johnson in 2017. He accounted for 76 team points to share team-high honors with classmate Tyler Downs. The 76 points were the most by a Boilermaker at Big Tens since Johnson's 79 in 2018 and the most by a freshman since Joe Cifelli (76) in 2016.
Purdue won bronze medals in the 200 and 400 freestyle relays, claiming multiple medals in the same year for the first time since 1998. The Boilermakers have won four relay medals over the last three years after earning just one from 2004 to 2019. The three consecutive seasons with a relay medal is a program first since 2001 to 2003.
Nikola Aćin, Brady Samuels and Nick Sherman were part of both medal-winning relays. They also joined Brett Riley among the four Purdue swimmers to score in all three of their individual events. Riley and Sherman accomplished the feat for the third year in a row. Aćin also did it for the third time in his career.
Samuels (100 fly) and Sherman (200 IM) broke their own program records and teamed with Keelan Hart and Aćin to eclipse the 400 free relay benchmark.
Greg Duncan finished fourth on both springboards, giving him six career top-four finishers in four career appearances (eight springboard entries) at the Big Ten Championships. He took over the top spot among the program's active career scoring leaders at Big Tens.
| ACTIVE CAREER SCORING LEADERS AT THE BIG TEN CHAMPIONSHIPS | ||||||
| Boilermaker | Career Pts | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 |
| Greg Duncan | 203 | 59 | 31 | 59 | 54 | NA |
| Ben Bramley | 193 | 34 | 54 | 43 | 62 | NA |
| Nikola Aćin | 192.5 | 51.5 | 55 | 37 | 49 | NA |
| Nick Sherman | 135 | 52 | 58 | 25 | -- | NA |
| Brett Riley | 88 | 42 | 21 | 25 | -- | NA |
| Tyler Downs | 76 | 76 | NA | NA | NA | NA |
| Jordan Rzepka | 76 | 76 | NA | NA | NA | NA |
| Brady Samuels | 59 | 59 | NA | NA | NA | NA |
| Ryan Hrosik | 46.5 | 9 | 10.5 | 18 | 9 | NA |
| Coleman Modglin | 36 | 26 | 10 | NA | NA | NA |
| Michael Juengel | 34.5 | 4.5 | 2 | 28 | NA | NA |
| Batuhan Hakan | 29.5 | DNC | 7.5 | DNC | -- | 22 |
| Nikola Bjelajac | 26 | DNC | DNC | 11 | 15 | -- |
| Elliot Cooper | 25 | 2 | 22 | 1 | NA | NA |
| Liam Walker | 24 | 13 | 11 | -- | NA | NA |
| Skyler Younkin | 24 | 13 | 11 | -- | NA | NA |
| DNC = Did Not Compete // NA = Not Part of the Team Yet | ||||||
Ben Bramley and Ryan Hrosik joined Aćin and Duncan as Boilermakers to score at Big Tens for the fourth consecutive year. Hrosik has also contributed to a medal-winning relay each of the last three years.
The Boilermakers posted 15 career bests that went into the program record book. All five relay teams also accounted for top-four times in team history. Skyler Younkin and Liam Walker both registered top-five times in the 200 butterfly. Walker joined Rzepka, Samuels and Sherman as Boilermakers to move up the team's all-time leaderboards in multiple events.
Selected Purdue swimmers will race at the Boiler-Make-It NCAA last chance meet on Sunday, March 6. Swimming qualifiers for the men's NCAA Championships will be announced Wednesday, March 9. The NCAA Zone Championships serves as the qualifier for the divers, with the Midwest's Zone C meet set for March 7 to 9 in Ann Arbor.
| CAREER BESTS TO MOVE UP ALL-TIME LISTS • Brady Samuels – 1st in 100 Fly (45.64) • Nick Sherman – 1st in 200 IM (1:43.42) • Skyler Younkin – 2nd in 200 Fly (1:45.01) • Brady Samuels – 2nd in 100 Free (42.41) • Liam Walker – 4th in 200 Fly (1:45.21) • Nick Sherman – 5th in 50 Free (19.54) • Tyler Downs – 5th on 1-Meter (427.55) • Coleman Modglin – 5th in 200 Breast (1:55.02) • Nick Sherman – 5th in 100 Back (47.12) • Jordan Rzepka – 6th on 3-Meter (451.90) • Michael Juengel – 7th in 100 Fly (46.99) • Keelan Hart – 9th in 100 Free (43.46) • Jordan Rzepka – 9th on Platform (443.10) • Liam Walker – 10th in 100 Fly (47.40) • Andrew Alders – T-13th in 200 Breast (1:58.72) • All 5 Relays Posted Top 4 Times in Team History |
TOP SCORING EVENTS 1.) 3-Meter Diving – 95 Points 5 Scorers – Rzepka, Duncan, Downs, Bramley, Bennett 2.) 1-Meter Diving – 85 Points 5 Scorers – Downs, Duncan, Rzepka, Bramley, Bennett 3.) Platform Diving – 80 Points 5 Scorers – Rzepka, Downs, Bramley, Duncan, Bennett 4.) 100 Free – 65 Points 4 Scorers – Samuels, Aćin, Sherman, Hart 5.) 50 Free – 38.5 Points 3 Scorers – Acin, Samuels, Hrosik 6.) 200 Free – 35 Points 3 Scorers – Sherman, Aćin, Hart 7.) 400 IM – 30 Points 3 Scorers – Riley, Shaw, Ratliff 8.) 200 Fly – 30 Points 4 Scorers – Younkin, Walker, Shaw, Cooper 9.) 100 Fly – 27.5 Points 3 Scorers – Samuels, Juengel, Walker 10.) 200 IM – 27 Points 2 Scorers – Sherman, Riley |