Tucker & Rogers receive swim-dive honors from Big Ten

PARK RIDGE, Ill. (WLFI) - Both individual winners during Purdue men’s swimming and diving’s road trip to Michigan State and Michigan last weekend, Danny Tucker and Layne Rogers received weekly honors from the Big Ten Conference office Tuesday.

Tucker was named Big Ten Swimmer of the Week after posting three individual victories and contributing to three relay victories.

Rogers earned his third Big Ten Freshman of the Week honor of the season thanks in part to his 3-meter diving victory Saturday at Michigan. He was also the runner-up to teammate Alec Back in the 3-meter competition in Purdue’s team win at Michigan State Friday. Rogers shared Freshman honors with Minnesota swimmer Logan Redondo this week.

Tucker was the only Boiler to post an individual victory in both East Lansing and Ann Arbor last weekend. He swept the 50 (20.18) and 100 freestyle (44.21) sprints at Michigan State, with both winning times ranking as NCAA provisional qualifying times (B Cuts). The junior also won the 100 free against No. 1-ranked Michigan (44.71) the following day.

Tucker set a new pool record at MSU’s McCaffree Pool in the 100 free with his time of 44.21, a season-best mark for Purdue. The Chicagoland native also teamed up with Chuck Destro, Benjamin Ziolkowski and Matt Friede to help the Boilers’ 400 free relay team win the event with a pool-record time of 2:59.71. Brian Kiel also posted a new pool record (1:46.31) at MSU while winning the 200 back.

Rogers posted his fifth individual victory of the season when he won the 3-meter event Saturday in Ann Arbor. However, it was the first victory for the West Lafayette native away from the Boilermaker Aquatic Center. The diver was also named Big Ten Freshman of the Week after the Purdue Invitational in November and as well as the Boilers’ season-opening weekend of competition in October.

Tucker anchored Purdue’s 200 medley and 200 free relay teams to victory during the road trip as well. His race-finishing split of 19.71 in the final 50 yards of the 200 free relay Saturday in Ann Arbor closed out a victory for the Boilermakers. Ziolkowski, Destro and Friede were also part of the Purdue foursome for that event. Stephen Seliskar, Kiel and Destro teamed up with Tucker for the 200 medley relay win at Michigan State.

Tucker has been part of 10 relay winners for Purdue this season while also leading the team with 12 individual victories. He joins Danny Conway and Noah Pashley as active Boilers to win Big Ten Swimmer of the Week honors. Conway was also the Big Freshman of the Week when he was recognized on Dec. 26.

Tucker, Conway, Destro, Friede and Kiel are five of the nine Purdue athletes traveling to Dallas this weekend for the six-team Classic @ SMU. Florida, Louisville, Michigan and USC round out the field.