Purdue vs South Carolina
- Thursday, October 19
- Morgan J. Burke Aquatic Center
- West Lafayette, IN
- Full Results (PDF)
Purdue hosted South Carolina on Thursday, with both the men and women walking away with wins. The Boilermaker men claimed 9 of 16 events, winning a tight race by a score of 157-142. The women, led by a standout performance from Kaersten Meitz, won handily by a score of 174.5-123.5.
Women’s Meet
Meitz was the dominant force on the women’s side, sweeping the 200, 500 and 1000 freestyles for Purdue. She opened the meet with a decisive 24-second win in the 1000 in a time of 9:43.68, and then had a quick turnaround to the 200. She blew the field out of the water once again, earning an NCAA ‘B’ cut time of 1:47.31 for the victory. She finished off the triple later on in the 500 with a time of 4:45.04.
Taite Kitchel was the other multi-event winner for the Boilermakers, taking down the 100 (54.94) and 200 fly (1:59.33). Another highlight for the Purdue women was Jinq En Phee earning a ‘B’ cut in the 100 breast, winning in a time of 1:02.44. Jackie Smailis (100 back) and Megan Johnson (100 free) added wins for them, and Emily Meaney came out on top in the 3-meter springboard.
South Carolina earned wins from Christina Lappen in the 50 free (23.25), Emily Cornell in the 200 back (1:59.88) and Kersten Dirrane in the 200 breast (2:16.18). Julia Vincent added a victory in the 1-meter diving event.
Purdue won the 200 medley relay to start things off in 1:41.56, and closed with a victory in the 400 free relay (despite it being scored as exhibition) in 3:23.31. Smailis swam on both winning relays, while Meitz, Johnson (free) and Phee (medley) each earned another win.
Men’s Meet
The Purdue men won on the heels of three men each posting two wins apiece. Russian breaststroker Marat Amaltdinov, who was an NCAA All-American last season in the 200, swept both the 100 and 200 breast in times of 54.32 and 1:57.01 respectively.
Joe Young also won a pair of events in the 100 back (49.54) and 100 fly (48.94), and multi-time NCAA champion and Olympic silver medalist Steele Johnson swept the diving events. Also adding individual wins for the Boilermakers was Eddy Zawatski (50 free) and Adam Noens (200 back).
South Carolina was led by Akaram Mahmoud, Fynn Minuth and Tom Peribonio, all of whom had multiple top-16 finishes at NCAAs last year.
After opening the meet with a win in the 400 medley relay (thanks to a DQ from Purdue), Mahmoud won the 1000 free in 9:07.04 over teammate Cody Bekemeyer (9:11.85). They continued the momentum in the 200 free with another 1-2 finish as Peribonio (1:38.52) and Tamas Novoszath (1:40.85) had strong swims.
Minuth won the 200 fly in 1:47.48, Mahmoud won the 500 free in 4:27.15, and Peribonio added another win in the 400 IM (3:52.23). Patrick McCrillis also picked up a win for the Gamecocks in the 100 free, touching in 45.56.
After a Purdue DQ gave the win to South Carolina in the 400 medley relay, the opposite happened in the 200 free relay. In the final event of the meet, South Carolina touched first in a time of 1:22.11, only to be disqualified which bumped Purdue (1:22.53) up to first.
Check out the full press releases from Purdue and South Carolina.