Both the Irish men's and women's swimming and diving teams fell to Purdue Friday at Purdue's Boilermaker Aquatic Center, but first-place performances from both teams showed the season has plenty of potential.
"In terms of progress, we have made much of it in working towards our end goal," men's coach Tim Welsh said. "After analyzing where we were last year, in comparison to where we are this year, we are moving forward."
The men were defeated, 195-105, with a large portion of the points they lost from a false start penalty of 0.01 seconds during one of the relay events. Purdue's electronic system for measuring the time that swimmers leave the side of the pool caught the error, and the mistake is an area that Welsh hopes to correct in practices this week before the Irish meet up with Big East rival Pittsburgh this weekend.
Notable performances by male Irish swimmers include senior John Lytle's first-place finishes in both the 100-meter freestyle (45.75) and 200-meter freestyle (1:40.32) events, and sophomore Petar Petrovic's wins in both the 100-meter backstroke (50.33) and 200-meter backstroke (1:51.27) events.
"[Purdue is] superb and have been much higher ranked than us," Welsh said. "They might be the fastest team we will see in a dual meet this whole season, and the fastest team we will see until the Ohio State Invitational."
The women were defeated 179-121.
"[Purdue] proved that they are a very strong team with a great deal of depth, especially in the freestyle events," senior captain Megan Farrell said. "The girls raced very well on Friday and have definitely made some big time drops in the past year."
Junior Katie Casey took first in both the 100 and 200-meter butterfly events, and junior Samantha Maxwell finished first in the 100 and 200-meter breaststroke events. Freshman Kim Holden also earned a top finish for the Irish in the 200-meter backstroke competition.
"Race plans and strategies were tested at this meet, and now we can critique our strategies and make adjustments to stroke technique before we compete again," Farrell said.
Next up for the Irish men is a dual meet at Pittsburgh Friday, and the women will attend the Hoosierland Invitational in Bloomington, Ind. on Nov. 20.
