Swimmers place 25th, set
new varsity record
The Purdue men's swim team placed 25th at the 2001
NCAA Championships this weekend in College Station, Texas.
Purdue's 21 points were enough to get the Boilers
their second-highest finish in 32 years.
The Boilermakers competed with only two participants,
senior freestyler Matt Martin and freshman breaststroker Tamas Bessenyei.
"This was a great meet for us," said Purdue coach
Dan Ross. "We finished in 25th place, which was our goal and we're very
excited about it."
Martin finished sixth in the 1,650 freestyle and
earned All-America honors.
He set Purdue varsity records in the 1,000 freestyle
and the 1,650. Martin's times of 9:00.3 in the 1,000 and 14:50.56 in
the 1,650 were also lifetime best times for the senior from Mission
Viejo, Calif. Martin took off almost six seconds from his previous lifetime
best and varsity records, which were set at the 2001 Big Ten Championships
in Minneapolis.
"Finishing sixth in the mile while setting a varsity
record, he's going out with a bang," Ross said. "That's exciting both
for him and me."
Martin was also named an honorable mention All-American
for his 400 individual medley finish of 16th on Friday.
"This was probably my best meet ever as a swimmer,"
said Martin. "I met my goal of coming in sixth in the mile and I'm so
happy that I was able to break two of my own school records again.
"Being named an All-American for the second time
is a great honor and it's been an unbelievable ride. This meet gives
me a great
high to head to the U.S. Senior Nationals. I'm
extremely excited to try and represent the U.S. team again."
For Bessenyei, it was a 10th-place finish in the
morning's preliminaries with a time of 1:57.95 that guaranteed him his
second honorable mention All-America honor, following his 12th-place
finish in the 100 breast on Friday. Despite his morning swim, Bessenyei
finished slightly slower with a time of 1:58.36 for 12th place in the
evening's finals.
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