In the first ever live dual meet televised on the Big Ten Network (if not any nationally-available television network), the Indiana Hoosiers took big wins over their in-state rivals from Purdue. The broadcast was very well done, thanks in no small part to the participation of Rowdy Gaines, who is without peer in terms of experience in that particular arena.
The meets were overall exciting, especially in the pool. Both teams got their wins in, which kept fans from both schools engaged. No word yet from the Big Ten Network on what ratings were for the meet, but we’ve heard a positive feedback from our readers.
The caveat to the scoring to remember in this matchup of two of history’s great diving programs is that this is probably the weakest Purdue diving squad in the last decade. They’ve hit a major catch-22 with the level of their diving program: they’re so good, that in an Olympic year the lineup is absolutely decimated by Olympic redshirts.
Indiana Women 169, Purdue Women 130
After the meet, Indiana head coach Ray Looze would say that revenge was not on the Hoosiers’ minds during this meet, following their upset-loss to in-state rivals Purdue in this meet last year. Still, the Hoosiers performed very well (bettering almost all of their times from an upset loss to Michigan two weeks ago), despite still swimming in big training mode.
The Hoosier distance crew continued to look strong, with senior Allysa Vavra taking the 1000 in 9:51. The Hoosiers (Lindsay Vrooman – 9:55.49; Lauren Jordan – 1:04.40) also placed 2nd and 3rd in the race.
Indiana senior Margaux Farrell took double wins in both the 100 and 200 freestyles, the latter of which was in a 1:48.66 that blew away her time from earlier this month by two seconds.
Farrell was upended, however, in the 50 freestyle (her weakest of the three short freestyles) by Purdue’s Lauren Gustafson in 23.05. Farrell was 2nd in 23.43.
Indiana’s Justine Ress had a huge bounceback from a disappointing 2:04 in the 200 back against Michigan to win the race in 1:59.53. Her freshman partner-in-crime Allie Day also stepped up with a much better 100 backstroke performance of 55.28. That’s the 2nd-best in the Big Ten since emerging from holiday training.
The star of the meet for Purdue was freshman Rhiannon Sheets, as she has been most of this season. She swept the butterfly races. First she took a win in the 200 fly in 2:01.29, and then she topped the 100 in 55.82 to take down Indiana’s deep butterfly group.
Brenna MacLean finished 2nd as the fastest Hoosierin both races. In the 200, she marked a 2:01.49, and was runner-up in the 100 in 56.56. Those are actually both season-best times in what continues to be a strange year for her. There were big expectations for her this season, but her fall semester was nowhere near what it should’ve been. Whatever was going on, she seems to have settled in now and is going more typical mid-season times.
Purdue’s other top swimmer, Emily Fogle, took a 100 breaststroke in 1:02.30. The runners-up were Bronwyn Pasloski and Ashley Specht in a pair of 1:03’s, as compared to 1:05’s against Michigan.
In the 200 breast, it was Alyssa Vavra who took the win over Fogle in 2:15.67. Pasloski was 2nd there in 2:17.48, with Fogle 3rd in 2:19.17.
Purdue (even without Sheets on the butterfly leg) won the 200 medley thanks to a great anchor by Gustafson (22.81) to turn a dead-heat into a relative-blowout. Indiana would take the 400 free relay, where their best swim was a 49.7 from Farrell, but they also got a very strong 50.3 second leg from sophomore Stephanie Armstrong.
In retrospect, the Hoosiers must’ve been a bit less-tired than they were at the previous dual, which is not unexpected as they move back into the 2nd semester. It seems as though part of the improvement was just them swimming better, but these are huge jumps (off of notably-bad times against Michigan).
Indiana Men 166, Purdue 134
The women’s result was not a surprise, but Purdue kept the men’s competition surprisingly close given that Indiana scored maximum diving points (which kicks them off with a 26-point margin).
Indiana senior Ryan Hinshaw swam a gutsy 1500 yards between his two races after tweaking his back on Wednesday. He won the 500 free in 4:29.79 and placed 2nd in the 1000 in 9:21.31. In that 1000, he was bested by his sophomore teammate Patrick Scally in what was actually Scally’s best time of the year. He may become the heir apparent to Hinshaw’s spot as the team’s top distance swimmer.
This was truly a team-effort for Indiana with 7 individual wins coming from 6 different swimmers. Much of the heavy-lifting was done by their two Jimmy’s: Jimmy Barbiere and Jimmy Wells (who is apparently going by Jimmy now, rather than James). Barbiere took a dominant, two-second win in the 200 free with a 1:37.98; he came back later in the meet to also win the 100 free in 44.98 (ahead of a quartet of Boilermakers headed by Matt Friede in 45.03). That depth would crop-up again later as Purdue went 1-2 in the 400 free relay with seven 45’s and a 46.0.
Meanwhile, Wells took the 100 back in 48.60 and was 2nd in the 200 in 1:49.40. The winner of that 200 was impressive Purdue freshman Guillermo Blanco in 1:48.32. He also took 2nd in the 100 behind Wells in 49.70.
Purdue is sprinting at a level well-above their in-state rivals right now, and went 1-4 in the 50 free. The top placing went to Danny Tucker in 20.42, followed by Ben Wachtel in 20.43. Tucker had a very hit-and-miss day in the 100: he anchored the medley relay in a blazing 43.72, but never mustered better than a 45.3 in his other two attempts in the meet.
Indiana freshman Steve Schmuhl is making his impact felt. After a 48.5 split on the butterfly leg of the medley relay, he took a huge win in the 200 fly in 1:47.73: three seconds better than the next-fastest competitor. That’s the best time in the Big Ten this semester from anyone who doesn’t swim for Michigan.
Purdue’s Blanco also added a 2nd victory (he too is a freshman) with a 1:50.07 in the 200 IM. Purdue pulled off a big individual upset when senior Albert Miller, who’s been having an outstanding season, upset Indiana sophomore Cody Miller by times of 50.05-56.71 in the 100 breast. Cody Miller is the defending Big Ten Champion in the race, whereas Albert was 12th.
The diving performance of the day came from Indiana’s Zachary Nees, who posted a 420.90 on the 1-meter. That’s the best collegiate performance in the history of the IU Natatorium, and the 2nd-best score in program history.
I attended the meet, which was packed with fans from both teams, and I noticed that they had a five camera telecast. The tv production was well done, but could you imagine how great it could be with a robotic overhead camera and underwater cameras. Just think how much more exciting it would be for the tv viewers. A major college basketball game or football game is covered from all angles. Games would be boring and hard to see everything using just five cameras. In closing it was a start and I hope that ESPN and other networks would figure out that swimming, if covered the right way, would be more exciting than the volleyball or bull riding that they… Read more »
The meet was well-run, and was definitely a success. Hopefully this can be built on in the future. My only negative feedback was that I never saw results, except for possibly hearing the heat winner’s time.