Purdue Invitational, Day Two

WEST LAFAYETTE, Indiana, November 20. STRONG performances from Ben Wachtel in the 200 freestyle and as the anchor of the victorious 800 free relay and David Boudia in the 3-meter dive helped Purdue men's swimming and diving retain its team lead through the completion of day two of the three-day Purdue Invitational at the Boilermaker Aquatic Center.

The Purdue women remained in fourth place (of eight teams). Like the men, the Boilermaker women also posted a bevy of new season-best times and scores Saturday.

The Purdue men (662.5) will take a 115-point lead over second-place Ohio State (547.5) into the final day. The Louisville women (522) have a 29 ½-point lead over second-place Arkansas (492.5).

The Purdue Invitational concludes Sunday morning with preliminaries at 10 a.m. Platform diving is set for noon.

Wachtel rallied late in both the 200 free and 800 free relay, helping Purdue win both events with a strong kick in the final 25 yards. The relay team's time of 6:38.97 was good for an NCAA provisional qualifier. Wachtel's morning preliminary time (1:39.15) in the 200 free was a season best for the Boilermakers. Andrew Starr, Drew Wolfred and Alec LaMothe also swam on the relay winner.

Starr's third place finish in the 200 free also helped Purdue extend its lead.

The Purdue men dominated the 100 backstroke and 3-meter dive. The Boilermakers had six of the top 12 finishers in the 100 back, led by a second-place performance from Chuck Destro, who posted a new season-best time (49.70) for Purdue. Steven Ung (third), Chris Pfaff (fifth), Brian Kiel (eighth), Tyler Gertz (10th) and Mark Boman (12th) were also among the point scorers in the event.

Boudia topped 500 points for the first time this season, his score of 502.65 being only 4.75 points shy of his 3-meter school record. J.P. Perez (408.10) and Danny Cox (389.30 in preliminaries) finished second and third, respectively, with season-high scores as well. Jimmy Page was fifth.

Erin Mertz posted the lone victory of the night for the Purdue women, winning the 1-meter dive. Her preliminary score of 317.30 was a season-high for the Boilermakers. She scored 315.75 in the finals, but was able to top Friday's 3-meter winner, Louisville's Hannah Gadd, by 2.7 points.

Lauren Roth (1:47.47) and Ariel Martin (1:48.87) finished third and fourth, respectively, in the 200 freestyle and both posted NCAA provisional qualifying times. Roth recorded a new season best time for Purdue as well. They were also part of the 800 free relay team that came in under the NCAA B standard. Lauren Gustafson and Lisa Butler teamed up with Martin and Roth on that relay, which finished third in the event.

Both Purdue 200 medley relay teams posted season best times. The women's team of Allie Smith, Emily Fogle, Butler and Martin posted an NCAA provisional qualifying time (1:42.46). Destro, Albert Miller, Brendan Joyce and Benjamin Ziolkowski teamed up for the men's 200 medley relay time of 1:31.61.

Other season top times for Purdue were posted by Brendan Joyce (49.72) and Mary-Margaret Lopez (56.21) in the 100 butterfly, Matt Stewart (4:00.86) in the 400 individual medley and Emily Fogle (1:03.20) in the 100 breaststroke. Joyce and Lopez both recorded their times in the morning preliminaries. Smith (55.13) was one one-hundredth of a second off her team season-best time while finishing third in the 100 back.

The above article is a press release submitted to Swimming World Magazine. It has been posted in its entirety without editing. Swimming World offers all outlets the chance to reach our audience by contacting us at Newsmaster@swimmingworldmagazine.com. However, Swimming World reserves the right to choose what material is posted.

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