Purdue Women’s Swimming Defeats Michigan State for third conference victory of year

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – The Purdue women’s swimming and diving team defeated Michigan State today, 187.5-112.5, at the Boilermaker Aquatic Center. The Boilermakers improve to 6-1 (3-0 Big Ten) on the year.

"Today, the team performed well," said Purdue head women’s swim coach Cathy Wright-Eger. "Today’s meet was the biggest margin we’ve defeated MSU with in a while and I can’t wait to get back to my office and check our times last year against this year. Several of our women are starting to have really good performances and grasp the concept that the little things add up to huge things that really make a difference in their races. Today, our finishes were good, our turns and kicks were stroke and we changed their strokes on the final stretch to really come home strong – and it worked."

Leading the way for the Boilermakers today was senior diver Kara Hajek-Gustafson. After an incredible holiday break of training and competitions, Hajek-Gustafson continues to be on fire on the boards. Today, she finished first on the 3-meter board with a score of 303.90 and second on the 1-meter board with a score of 280.05.

Also on the boards for Purdue were senior Molly MacFarlane, junior Carrie Dougherty and junior Heather Bachman. On the 1-meter, MacFarlane finished third and on the 3-meter, she came in fifth. Dougherty finished fourth on the 3-meter and exhibitioned on the 1-meter for a sixth-place finish. Bachman finished fifth on the 1-meter and exhibitioned to a sixth-place finish on the 3-meter.

On the 1-meter board for Michigan State, Carly Weiden earned a pool record with a score of 304.87, breaking Hajek-Gustafson’s previous record of 292.12.

In the first race of the day, the Boilermakers’ ‘B’ relay team of juniors Lisa Dolansky, Lindsay Lange, Patricia Finnerty and Kim Paradeise finished in first with a time of 3:48.22.

Boilermaker senior Kelly Mackus finished second in the 1,000 free with a time of 10:20.46 and junior Shannon Funk was fourth in 10:31.68.

In a very tight race, Purdue’s Jenni Bean held on for the first-place finish in the 200 freestyle with a time of 1:54.66, while Paradeise and MSU’s Jen Windstein tied for second in 1:54.98.

Dolansky continued her undefeated streak through today’s meet in the 100 backstroke, finishing in 56.59, as freshman Brandy Keever finished third with a time of 59.26.

Lange pulled out another first-place victory in the 100 breaststroke, almost two full seconds ahead of her closest competitor in Boilermaker freshman Lindsay Kirchoff. Senior Ronica Rogalski finished third in 1:06.24.

Senior Karin Stender finished second in the 200 butterfly and Finnerty finished third. Sophomore Autumn Sample finished fourth with sophomore Stacie Kleber not far behind in fourth for the exhibition swim.

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Paradeise won the 100 free with a time of 52.62 and freshmen Katie Seleskie and Tracy Duchac finished third and fourth with times of 54.68 and 55.56, respectively.

In another tight race, Michigan State’s Katie Duncombe edged out Dolansky for the victory in the 200 backstroke. Dolansky finished in 2:04.23 and Keever was fourth in 2:07.63.

Lange also won the 200 breaststroke with a time of 2:22.82 and Kirchoff finished second in 2:23.33.

Mackus gathered her second second-place finish of the day in the 500 free with a time of 5:05.37, while Bean finished fourth in 5:15.30.

Finnerty, Stender and Sample combined in the 100 fly for a 2-3-4 finish with times of 57.48, 58.03 and 58.79 for the Boilermakers.

In the 200 individual medley, Bean finished first, nearly breaking her own pool record, as she was only 0.02 seconds off her record time. Sample rounded out the top three finishers with a time of 2:09.35.

In the final event of the afternoon, the Purdue ‘B’ team of Paradeise, Seleskie, Lange and Bean finished first in the 400 free relay with a time of 3:35.32 and the ‘C’ team of Duchac, senior Katie Mullarkey, freshman Brenda Banning and Rogalski finished second in 3:37.64.

The Boilermakers will return to action when they head to Bloomington on Saturday for the annual Indiana-Purdue matchup. Meet time is set for 1 p.m. and the diving portion of the meet has already been completed. Heading into the swimming portion of the competition, the Boilermakers lead the Hoosiers, 20-18. The two will fight for not only state bragging rights, but also the win for the Titan Series, sponsored by Keebler.

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