Due to most of the country being locked away at major invites, we’ve combined the ACC and Big Ten recaps for this past weekend.
Big Ten Male Swimmer of the Week-Jacob Jarzen, Michigan State
Big Ten Female Swimmer of the Week-Alyssa Vavra, Indiana
ACC Male Swimmer of the Week-Matt McLean, Virginia
ACC Female Swimmer of the Week-Annie Fittin, Maryland
The No. 9 Virginia women and No. 11 Virginia men found themselves in a Big Ten dogfight this weekend as they hosted Penn State and Indiana in a tri-meet.
When looking through the results of this meet, expectations must be tempered compared to some of the other show-stopping times we saw this weekend, as none of the squads appeared to be as rested for this meet as many of the teams in the Arena and Georgia Tech Invites were.
The final scores of the tri-meet were:
Virginia Men 186-Penn State 150
Virginia Men 194-Indiana 159
Indiana Men 182-Penn State 154
Virginia Women 207-Indiana Women 144
Virginia Women 187-Penn State Women 158
Indiana Women 195-Penn State Women 158
There were still some very impressive swims in this meet. Of note was Liz Shaw’s 200 fly, where she won the race in a time of 1:57.99, which is top ten in the nation. Shaw also won the 100 fly.
Lauren Perdue had a similarly impressive day for the Cavaliers in sweeping the freestyle events in times of 22.69/49.51/1:47.86, all of which are NCAA “B” cuts, and season-best times in the 50 and the 100. Both of those marks would’ve been among the nation’s best headed into this weekend, and she should put up some great times when rested.
Indiana’s Alyssa Vavra was the only female to pull off a perfect weekend, by sweeping both breaststroke and both IM events. Her best mark was a 2:00.65 in the 200 IM. For Penn State, the standout performance was from Amy Modglin, who will represent the USA at the World University Games in August. In the 200 backstroke, she swam away from the field and touched in 1:56.11-a win by over 4 seconds.
On the men’s side, the best performances came from Virginia’s Matt McLean, who won 4 individual events (200-500-1000 free, 200 fly) and was part of the winning 400 free relay as well. Three out of those four swims were season-bests for the senior, and the most impressive of the four was probably his 9:05.75 in the 1000, which is the fourth best time in the country so far. I will be very interested in seeing his mile time when Virginia travels to the Georgia Invitational in two weeks.
The Virginia men’s other big-time senior, Scot Robison, won both the 100 free and the 100 fly. In that butterfly, he swam a season-best time of 48.58, and continued to work on what will likely be his third event at NCAA’s this year. Virginia has avoided overlapping their two stars in the 200 freestyle, an event they are both very good at, for the most part this season. It will be curious to see if this is a strategy just for the dual-meet season or if it will continue into March.
Indiana’s Eric Ress also had some good performances in sweeping the backstrokes and picking up a third win in the 200 IM. His 200 back time of 1:45.05 is his best, and the fifth best by anyone, this year.
Penn State and Virginia will both swim next at the Georgia Invitational the Weekend of December 3rd. Indiana will host its Hoosierland Invitational that same weekend.
Full results available here through the Virginia website.
Purdue Invitational
The Purdue Boilermakers hosted their annual invitational last weekend, and the men played rude hosts by winning the meet over a very tough field. The Purdue women placed fourth.
Final scores:
Men
#21 Purdue, 968.5
#8 Ohio State, 761.5
#19 Louisville, 653.5
Southern Illinois, 381.5
Missouri State, 310
Cincinnati, 144
Michigan (Divers only), 89
Women
#20 Arkansas, 811.5
#17 Louisville, 689
#21 Ohio State, 677
#19 Purdue, 520.5
Michigan, 405
Missouri State, 182
Cincinnati, 155
Southern Illinois, 125
The Purdue divers carried a big load for the team, including taking at least the top two spots in each discipline, and getting a sweep from David Boudia. They also demonstrated that they had some chops in the pool, by beginning and ending the meet with wins in the 200 and 400 freestyle relays. Their times in those races of 1:21.20 and 2:58.41 both rank them in the top 11 nationally. The 400 free relay was buoyed by three splits of 44.3 or better, and the Boilers are about 1 good 100 freestyler away from being very dangerous in those relays. With no seniors on either one, they definitely have the time to develop freshman Matt Friede, who split a 20.07 in the shorter relay. Philip Greedes, another freshman split 20.16 and 44.24 on the two relays which even greater promise and excitement for the future of the Purdue swim team.
At any rate, even with the lopsided abilities of their divers, knocking off the #8 team in the country in an invitational format is very impressive.
For the #8 Ohio State men, the runners up in this meet, the most notable swim was Justin Farra’s 1:48.95 200 IM, which is 10th best in the country. Tim Phillips, who was one of the best surprises at USA LC Nationals this summer, still hasn’t found his rhythm to carry that speed over to the short course pool. He went a respectable, but not great, time of 48.31 to finish second in the 100 fly. Justin Wolfe from Southern Illinois won that race in 48.19, and look out-that wasn’t even his best time of the season. This is a name to watch in mid-major swimming.
On the women’s side, meet champions Arkansas dominated the mile and took four out of the top five spots. Chelsea Franklin led the way for the Razorbacks in 16:11.63, which is the sixth best time in the country this year.
The Ohio State women have two great parts to an 800 free relay in Sam Cheverton (1:46.83) and Megan Detro (1:47.17) who finished 1-2 in the individual 200 with two top 15 times. In the relay, the Buckeyes were able to stick two young freestylers (Alex Norris and Shannon Draves) in with their two big-guns and still pull of an event win in 7:13.34, which is the second best time in the nation.
Full results available here through PurdueSports.com.
Other Big Ten News
Michigan State’s Jacob Jarzen took our Male Swimmer of the Meet honors at the Georgia Tech Invitational thanks to a best-in-the-nation 47.22 in the 100 fly…
Other ACC News
Both North Carolina squads dominated their home Nike Cup invites last weekend. Rebecca Kane from UNC went a 49.24 100 free, and South Carolina freshman Amanda Rutqvist broke a meet record in 2:10.35, the best time in the SEC this season. For the men, UNC”s Joe Kinderwater rocked the pool and dominated an 18-year old record held by six-time National Champion Lars Jorgenson. Kinderwater’s mark of 14:52.93 is second best in the nation this season…Maryland’s Annie Fittin dominated the Terrapin Cup with 4 wins, including three that rank top-1o nationally. Her 22.65 50 freestyle was the most impressive…Georgia Tech hosted a major invite, which had some superstar performances by Texas A&M’s Sarah Henry. Florida State’s Robert Holderness swam almost a perfect 200 breaststroke for the top time in the country. Clemson, Miami, and NC State also participated in the 3-day invite…BU took a one-up in the cross-town rivalry by winning their own Terrier Invitational over Boston College, among others.