Notre Dame vs Purdue dual meet
- October 22, 2021
- Rolfs Aquatic Center, Notre Dame, Indiana
- Short course yard (25 yards)
- Results link
- Team scores:
- Notre Dame M defeat Purdue M 180-120
- Notre Dame W defeat Purdue W 216.5-81.5
Purdue hit the road on Friday to take on fellow Indiana university Notre Dame. Both teams came off successful weekends, when Purdue won Indiana Intercollegiates and Notre Dame beat both Pitt and Cleveland State in a tri-meet.
The meet was Purdue’s only away trip this semester, and the team’s first time competing at Rolfs Aquatic Center since 2018. Notre Dame swept the previous four co-ed duals, and continued the trend Friday night at home.
Men’s Meet
Last week, Notre Dame’s Cason Wilburn dominated the field against Pitt and Cleveland State. This week, the junior and NCAA qualifier continued to impress. He swam the butterfly leg (20.72) of the team’s event-winning 200 medley relay with a time of 1:27.53, joined by Kaden Smesko’s backstroke (22.91), Josh Bottelberghe’s breaststroke (23.79), and Chris Guiliano’s freestyle (20.11).
Wilburn continued his win streak with the 200 freestyle, swimming a time of 1:37.21. Later in the meet, he also won the 100 butterfly in 47.16. These are the same events he won against Pitt and Cleveland State.
Freshman Josh Brown, a USA Swimming Junior National Team member in the 10k, won the 1000 freestyle. Brown swam a time of 9:20.29 and shaved three seconds off his event-winning time from last week.
Brown, like last week, placed third in the 500 freestyle behind Notre Dame veterans Liam Hutchinson, who placed second with a time of 4:32.59, and Thacher Scannell, who won the event with a time of 4:32.35. Scannell and Hutchinson switched places from last week’s meet, when Hutchinson won with a time of 4:33.01 in a similarly close race.
Notre Dame senior Bottelberghe demonstrated his breaststroke prowess by sweeping both of the stroke’s events, the 100 in 54.58 and the 200 in 1:58.97. At the 2021 NCAA Championships, Bottelberghe placed 23rd in the 100 and 17th in the 200, so his senior year events are all but secured.
Purdue only had three individual event winners. Freshman Brady Samuels, who won multiple events last weekend, took home an first individual win of the night in the 50 freestyle, with a time of 20.33. Notably, Purdue senior Nikola Acin, winner of the 50 freestyle in Purdue’s dual meet against Minnesota, did not swim.
Acin did swim the 100, however, and won with a time of 43.77.
Purdue freshman Tyler Downs won the 1-meter and 3-meter diving events, helping add to a point total that largely relied on Purdue’s depth as a team.
Though Purdue only won three individual events, the men racked up a number of second, third, and fourth places, particularly in the sprint events, that helped them secure a final score somewhere above 100 points at this meet.
Women’s Meet
In SwimSwam’s preseason poll, the Purdue women ranked 22nd, and the Notre Dame women were ranked 25th. It was Notre Dame, though, that overwhelmed Purdue at home on Friday.
Two major power players emerged when Notre Dame competed against Pitt and Cleveland State: All-American Coleen Gillilan and freshman Madelyn Christman. Both of them began this meet’s competition on the event-winning 200 medley relay team, which won by four seconds with a time of 1:40.24. Gillilan swam the breaststroke leg (28.07), Christman swam the freestyle leg (22.50), and both were joined by Jess Geriane on backstroke (25.25) and Megan Deuel on butterfly (24.42).
Gillilan would come back later to win the 200 IM in 2:01.85.
Christman continued to post impressive times throughout the night, winning the 100 backstroke with a time of 54.08 and the 100 butterfly with a time of 55.17.
Fellow teammate Sydney Whiting swept the sprint freestyle events for Notre Dame, winning the 50 with a time of 23.78 and the 100 with a time of 50.82. This was Whiting’s debut this season in the 50, and she’s already within a tenth of a second of her 2021 ACC Championships time. Similarly, she’s within a half second of her best performance last season in the 100, which occurred during the Cincinnati dual meet.
Freshman and All-American Maggie Graves led a 1-2-3 sweep of the 1000 freestyle for Notre Dame, with a time of 10:04.83. Second place went to Sophia Karras (10:06.95) and third went to Madeline LaPorte (10:07.05). Graves also won at the Notre Dame tri-meet with Pitt and Cleveland State, cementing early on in the season her ability to lead the team in the longest distance events.
Notre Dame eventually exhibitioned the 400 freestyle relay, winning every single other event.
Purdue freshman Maggie Love, however, performed relatively well as the only Boilermaker to earn second place in an individual event, doing so in the 100 breaststroke with a time of 1:02.82, the 200 breaststroke with a time of 2:01.26, and the 200 IM with a time of 2:04.06.
Purdue will return to the pool on Nov. 5 to host Michigan and Missouri. Notre Dame will also return Nov. 5, competing on the road against Louisville.