Big Ten Weekly Preview: Purdue Hosts Wisconsin, Tennessee: U-M to Iowa

Photo Courtesy: Purdue Athletics

The Big Ten Conference continues its swimming & diving season with a handful of meets this week.

There are two double dual meets that will be interesting this early in the season.

The first is Wisconsin and Tennessee at Purdue on Friday.

Wisconsin is coming off of a thrilling sweep of rival Minnesota two weeks ago.

Beata Nelson also claimed victory in the 200 backstroke with a time of 1:54.76 and notched first place in the 100 backstroke with a time of 52.57, both NCAA qualifying marks.

She also anchored the winning 400 free relay to close out the meet and secure the rivalry victory.

It wasn’t just Nelson. Junior Megan Doty won the 200-yard butterfly with a time of 1:58.88, good for a win and an NCAA qualifying bid. Doty also finished first in the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 54.45.

The Boilermakers, meanwhile, are coming off of a rivalry loss, this time at the hands of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. Joe Cifelli and Joe Young each won multiple events, but it wasn’t enough for Purdue.

The Purdue women are ranked No. 26, while Wisconsin is No. 23, which could give this matchup an exciting finish, perhaps coming down to the final relay. The Wisconsin and Purdue men are not ranked, but are strong programs that could also be in store for an extremely close dual meet.

This should be an intriguing matchup, especially with Tennessee (ranked No. 12 for the men and No. 10 for the women) thrown into the mix.

The other interesting double dual is a two-day affair on Friday and Saturday when Iowa hosts Michigan and Denver.

The Michigan men are ranked No. 7 and Denver is 27^th. The Michigan women are No. 5

On Friday, Ohio State hosts Akron and Denison.

Also on Saturday, Michigan State hosts Kenyon and Nebraska hosts Kansas.

Name*

Email*

Welcome to our community. We invite you to join our discussion. Our community guidelines are simple: be respectful and constructive, keep on topic, and support your fellow commenters. Commenting signifies that you agree to our Terms of Use