Boilers end tradition at Lambert with big win against IU

By Katie Trummel
Staff Writer

The No. 21 Boilermakers ended their 63-year affair with Lambert Pool in grand fashion with a huge 131-112 win over rival Indiana Saturday.

Senior John Wakefield exulted, "This was the greatest swim meet of my life, and I've had hundreds of meets. But this is a great way to finish up."

Sophomore Gui Rego agreed.

"It's awesome," he said. "We've been thinking about this since last year, since the last time we swam IU. It's very emotional, very awesome."

The fact that the win wasn't easy or expected only made it sweeter. In the diving events — held two weeks ago due to IU's discomfort with diving at Lambert — the Hoosiers took a quick lead, capturing first, second and third places in both the one-meter and three-meter events. However, after the first five swimming events Saturday, the Boilers were ahead 66-65 and never gave up the lead again.

"This was amazing," said Coach Dan Ross. "Every time I scored the meet in my head, I had IU winning. But we came in and won the races we wanted to, and ended up winning the meet. It's just amazing."

The Boilers wanted to win just five events, the 50 and 100 freestyle, the 200 individual medley, the 200 butterfly and the 400 free relay, but ended up taking first in seven, including the 500 and 1000 freestyle, and setting the last Lambert Pool record in the medley relay. Close touchouts for second and third places also contributed to the Boilers' win.

Ross attributes the win to a strong team effort.

"There was no one outstanding swim," he said. "Everyone was solid. That's the way it should be."

And indeed it worked. Out of the 11 swimming events, the Boilers took top honors in seven, and placed second and third in each of the four others.

The Boilers closed out their dual meet season in front of a standing room only crowd of approximately 400 alumni, family and friends. Many people came to pay their last respects to Lambert, since the team will move into a new facility next to the Recreational Sports Center next season. Spectators were welcomed with a large sign reading, "Welcome to the last meet at Lambert," and were thanked by the team members after the meet. According to Ross, the support of such a crowd was a huge factor.

"It was great to see the place packed," he said. "We had everybody here. I think it was great for our guys to see the kind of tradition we have here."

Both Lambert Pool and Boilermaker traditions made their presence known Saturday, as alumni remembered their own experiences in the pool and on campus. One alumna, who never swam for the varsity team but swam on an intramural team, recalled many fond memories of Lambert and is pleased that her nephew is now competing there.

"We would come in here after the 'real' teams finished and just play around and have fun. It was great," she said.

Saturday's crowd was definitely full of Boilermaker pride, cheering for every swimmer, standing at the end of races, and exchanging friendly banter with the Hoosier fans in attendance. The place was loud, excited, and almost party-ish during the meet.

However, the team itself is celebrating just one thing: adding another win to their record at IU's expense.

"The fact that we can finish like this is awesome," said freshman Kyle Jackson. "We wanted this, everybody here wanted this. It's great."

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