Four Big 10 teams traveled to Purdue to swim in a very competitive environment. The men held a quad meet, including Iowa, Purdue, Northwestern and Ohio State, while the women competed in a tri meet with Purdue, Northwestern and Ohio State.
The women from Purdue swept the meet, while the men of Ohio State swept the meet on their side. Here is how the final scores shaked out:
Men
Ohio State vs. Purdue:169-131
Ohio State vs. Northwestern: 231-69
Ohio State vs. Iowa: 195-105
Purdue vs. Northwestern: 209.5-90.5
Purdue vs. Iowa: 173-127
Women
Purdue vs. Ohio State: 157-143
Purdue vs. Northwestern: 202-87
Ohio State vs. Northwestern: 211-89
Women’s Meet
Kicking off the meet was the 200 medley relay. Purdue had the win in a time of 1:43.91, and Ohio State behind them at 1:44.22. Northwestern was third in 1:44.52.
Overall, none of these teams relay was their best line-up, which was evident as the meet moved onto the individual races.
Ohio State showed their dominance in the distance races, with a win by Kelly Ann Baird. Baird, Lauren Abruzzo (NW), Lindsey Clary (OSU) and Nika-Karlina (PUR) same evenly for the first portion of the race. Baird made her move into the 600, Abruzzo maintained, and Clary and Petric faded a bit, separating and finished in that order – 9:53.40, 9:55.49, 10:03.43, 10:06.89.
Purdue had Carly Mercer in the 200 freestyle; she got out and fast to hold onto the win in 1:48.07. Alex Norris, OSU, made a last 75 charge, but finished second in 1:48.60.
Mercer’s teammates Allie Davis was third in 1:49.21 and Rhiannon Sheets was fourth in 1:49.56. OSU’s Phoebe Cater was the last sub 1:50 finishing in 1:49.95.
Northwestern got a win with Lacey Locke in the 100 backstroke. She topped the field easily in 55.18. Ohio State had the next three spots with Erin Dunseith, 56.49, Lauren Davis, 56.85, and Camey Rabold, 57.21.
Francesca Marr finished at 1:03.59 in the 100 breaststroke for the win for the Boilermakers.
Taylor Vargo was second at 1:04.80 for the Buckeyes. With Northwestern sealing the third and fourth spots with Julianne Kurke, 1:05.02 and Katie Branch, 1:05.15.
Purdue went 1-2 in the 200 butterfly. Rhiannon Sheets led the way in 2:00.78, and Meagan Lim a second behind at 2:01.93.
Alex Norris and Amy Bopp went 3-4 for the Buckeyes. Norris right behind Lim at 2:02.10, and Bopp hitting the wall at 2:02.64.
Carly Mercer, Purdue, took both the 50 and 100 freestyles. Her winning times were 23.14 and 49.71. Michelle Williams from OSU finished second to Mercer in both events at 23.26 and 50.28.
Ohio State got the third spot in both events. In the 50 it was Annie Jongekrijg at 23.67, and Aliena Schmidtke in the 100 at 50.73.
Lacey Locke won her second event of the day in the 200 backstroke. Her winning time was 2:00.02. Ohio State had the next four spots, with Kristyn Fulcher in second at 2:02.21.
Like Locke, Marr from Purdue, had her second win in the longer discipline of her stroke. She took the 200 breaststroke in 2:17.59. Bopp was second and her teammate Vargo was third, 2:18.08 and 2:19.57.
Norris and Baird went 1-2 in the 500 for the Buckeyes. The winning time by Norris was 4:49.22, with 4:51.28 from Baird. Allie Davis, Purdue, was third at 4:52.96.
In a tight battle, Meagan Lim won the 100 butterfly just .01 ahead of Williams, 55.07 to 55.08. Schmidtke just topped Lew Yong Gerbrandt by .02 for third and fourth, 55.35 to 55.37.
To wrap up the individual events of the meet, Lindsay Clary had the 400 IM in 4:21.74. Francesca Marr was a second behind, unable to keep up with Clary’s final 100, in 4:22.72.
Becca Soderholm from Northwestern wrapped up the top 3 in 4:22.86.
By this point in the meet, the relay was the deciding factor. Purdue needed a win or 2-3 in the relay to take the event; Ohio State needed to go 1-2 to win and 1-3 for a tie. The Buckeyes took a risk and split their relay to go for the win, versus settling for an easy tie.
In a thrilling race, Purdue had the victory by about .1. The won in 4:23.03. Mercer, 50.07, Gracie Hernandez, 50.86, Carly Marshall, 51.32, and Sheets, 50.78, teamed up to hold off the Buckeyes.
Ohio State’s A relay was 3:23.18 and B relay was 3:24.32. Notably, Norris anchored the A relay in 49.58 to end the meet.
Men’s Meet
Ohio State had the first victory of the afternoon in the 200 medley relay. Garrett Trebilcock, 22.69, Keanu Stevenson, 24.88, Matt McHugh, 21.42, and Josh Fleage, 19.62, teamed up to finish in 1:28.61.
Iowa was second in 1:29.87. Purdue was third in 1:30.39, with a 19.69 anchor form Danny Tucker on the freestyle leg.
Senior Alex Miller kept off an upcoming distance star Jordan Wilimovsky from Northwestern in the 1000 freestyle. Miller won the event in 9:09.37, with Wilimovsky at 9:11.14.
Purdue had the third spot with Danny Conway in 9:22.91.
It was a freshman battle in the 200 freestyle between one Boilermaker and two Buckeyes. Filip Bujoczek had the win for Purdue in 1:38.48, with Steffen Hillmer from OSU right behind at 1:38.88.
Vlad Komarov was third in 1:39.80.
Iowa had their first victory of the day with Dustin Rhoads in the 100 backstroke. He finished in a B standard in a time of 48.36.
The Buckeyes had the next three spots with Steven Zimmerman, 48.92, Matt McHugh, 49.44, and Connor McDonald, 49.47.
Following his teammate, Roman Trussov from Iowa clinched another win and B standard in the 100 breaststroke. His winning time was 54.35. Andrew Marcinika from Iowa was third in 55.97.
Lyam Dias was second for Purdue at 55.93.
Guillermo Blanco won the 200 butterfly for Purdue in 1:48.52. OSU went 2-3 with Tama Gercsak and Ryan Bubb, 1:49.80 and 1:51.20.
Danny Tucker had the 50 freestyle in 20.22. Josh Fleagle was second in 20.38.
The two switched places in the 100 freestyle with Fleagle in first at 44.15, B standard. Tucker was second in 44.64.
Connor McDonald had the longer backstroke race, finishing in 1:47.05 in the 200. Zimmerman was second for the Buckeyes in 1:47.16.
Rhoades was third here in the 200, with a time of 1:47.55.
Trussov won his second event of the day in the 200 breaststroke. His winning time was 1:59.82. Nicky Zito made it a 1-2 Iowa finish in second, just over 2:00 at 2:00.23.
Purdue’s Dias was third at 2:00.64.
Miller took his second long freestyle race of the day in the 500 freestyle. He had this race at 4:26.49. There was a race for second with Filip Bukoczek and Wilimovsky, with Purdue taking second.
Bukoczek was 4:30.55 to Wilimovsky’s 4:30.88.
Ohio State went 1-4 in the 100 butterfly led by McHugh in 48.30. Ryan Bubb was second, 49.56, Mark Belanger in third, 49.65, and Garrett Trebilcock in fourth, 49.95 – exhibition.
Purdue’s Stephen Seliskar was fifth, fourth for scoring, under :50 at 49.99.
The men’s final event was the 200 IM, with Blanco from Purdue dipping under 1:50 at 1:49.94.
Iowa went 2-3 with Nicky Zito in 1:51.51 and Kyle Noser in third at 1:51.68.
Ohio State touched out Purdue in the final 400 freestyle relay, 2:58.58 to 2:58.93 to round out the meet. Fleagle for OSU and Tucker for Purdue both split 43’s – 43.68 and 43.23, respectively.