Swim team places eighth
in Big Ten championship
The men's swim team completed the 2001 Big Ten
Men's Swimming Championships with a total of 269 points and an eighth-place
finish.
Freshman Tamas Bessenyei won the 100-meter breaststroke
on Friday. This is Purdue's first conference champion since Vilmos Kovacs
in the 200-meter breast in 1998. Bessenyei had a time of 53.78 and recorded
a Big Ten record, a Purdue varsity record and qualified for the NCAA
meet with an automatic bid `A-cut' time. The previous Big Ten record
of 54.19 was held by Michigan's Eric Wunderlich, set in 1993. The previous
Purdue record of 54.34 was set in 1997 by Kovacs.
Mike Miller finished 12th in the consolations of
the100 breast with a lifetime best of 56.13 and an NCAA `B-cut.'
Senior Matt Martin finished fifth in the 400-meter
individual medley with a time of 3:51.06. Martin's prelim time of 3:49.42
was a lifetime best and is good enough for an automatic bid and an NCAA
`A-cut.'
In the 100 butterfly, Tad Sayce finished in eighth
place with a time of 48.42, a Purdue varsity record, a lifetime best
time and an NCAA `B-cut' time.
On Saturday Martin finished fourth in the 1650-meter
freestyle with a time of 14:56.22, an automatic bid `A-cut' to the NCAA
Championships, two varsity records, season-best times and lifetime-best
times. Martin broke his own varsity record in both the 1650 and the
1000 free with the same swim. His split time of 9:03.06 at the 1000
mark was three seconds faster than his previous record and his final
time in the1650 was seven seconds faster than his previous record. Both
records were recorded at the 2000 Big Ten Championships.
In the 200-meter backstroke, senior Juan Rodela
qualified for the consolation heat and finished 11th with a time of
1:46.99. Rodela's time was good enough for both a lifetime-best and
an NCAA `B-cut' consideration time.
Junior Jon Duncan finished 10th with a time of
44.57 for a season-best in the 100 free. Duncan also qualified for an
NCAA `B-cut' consideration time with his finish.
Bessenyei finished eighth in the 200 breast with
a time of 2:01.37. Bessenyei's time was also good enough for an NCAA
`B-cut' consideration time, while Miller notched his own lifetime-best
time with a 13th-place finish in 2:02.99.
The Boilermakers were able to hold on at the end
for eighth-place overall, with a seventh-place finish in the 400 free
relay. Team members junior Javier Diaz, senior David Weis, sophomore
Jeremy Wright and Duncan tallied a time of 2:58.68.
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