Tucker breaks record in 100 free

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (WLFI) - Purdue's Danny Tucker broke the program record in the 100 freestyle twice on the day and three divers finished among the top eight in the championship final of platform diving, highlighting the final day of action at the Big Ten Championships for Purdue men’s swimming and diving.

The Boilermakers finished the four-day, seven-session meet with 328 points to place fifth of 10 teams. Purdue placed seventh last year. This season, the Boilers finished ahead of two teams (No. 20 Iowa and No. 24 Penn State) ranked in the latest CSCAA Top 25 poll. No. 3 Michigan claimed its third straight title and fifth in the last six years.

Tucker posted a time of 42.94 in the preliminaries to initially eclipse John Schmitt’s program record of 43.08 from 2009. Tucker then finished second to Michigan’s Bruno Ortiz (42.76) in the A final with a time of 42.84. Both swimmers bested the pool record at Indiana’s Counsilman-Billingsley Aquatics Center.

Tucker was named Second Team All-Big Ten after he also finished as the runner up in the A final of the 50 free Thursday. His anchor leg split of 41.99 in the 400 free relay was the best showing in the entire 10-team event. The sophomore teamed with Chuck Destro, Matt Friede and Ben Ziolkowski to help the Boilers take fourth place in the 400 free relay with a time of 2:54.37, just six hundredths of a second shy of the program record from 2009.

Jamie Bissett, Sean Mokhtari and Nate Cox all qualified for the championship final of the platform diving competition to lock up the fifth-place finish for Purdue. Bissett took third with the fifth-best score (423.80) in program history. Mokhtari was fifth and Nate Cox seventh, also posting Top 10 scores in the team record book. The trio combined for 42 team points. Bissett and Cox scored points in all three diving disciplines this week at Big Tens.

Lyam Dias took fourth in the A final of the 200 breaststroke, registering the second-fastest time in program history (1:55.31).

Brian Kiel (fifth in the B final of 200 back), Luke Trimmer (15th in the mile), Nate Hopkins (16th in the mile) and Matt Friede (eighth in the B final of 100 free) also scored team points for the Boilers individually Saturday. Danny Conway (second in the C final of 200 fly), Hopkins and Trimmer all posted a Top 10 time in the team record book.

Selected Boilers will compete next Sunday at the Ohio State Last Ditch NCAA Qualifier in Columbus. Swimming qualifiers for the NCAA Championships are expected to be announced the week of March 11-15. The divers will look to punch their tickets to NCAAs at the Zone C Diving Championships, hosted by Purdue this season March 14-16 at the Boilermaker Aquatic Center.