sports swimming & diving
IU men's swim and dive looks to rebound against rival Purdue
Claire Livingston
Then-sophomore, now-junior Gabriel Fantoni sets up on the block before swimming the 100 backstroke Nov. 11, 2018, at Boilermaker Aquatic Center. IU will compete against Purdue Jan.25 at home.
By Aiden Kantner
Published Jan 22, 2020 6:02 pm Last updated Jan 22, 2020 6:11 pm
The No. 5 IU men's swim and dive team will look to extend its win streak over Purdue to ten consecutive meets Saturday, dating back to Feb. 5, 2011.
The Hoosiers will return home to the Counsilman-Billingsley Aquatics Center for the first time in 77 days. The last time they swam competitively in Bloomington was in a tri-meet Nov. 9with the University of Texas and University of Louisville.
IU's last meet was Jan. 11, when it lost to No. 3 Michigan in Ann Arbor 160-140. It was its first defeat in a dual meet since it lost to Auburn University on the road Nov. 7, 2015.
In its last meet, the Purdue men's team won 13 events on its way to a 184-113 win over Michigan State in West Lafayette, Indiana. Sophomore All-American Nikola Aćin made his season debut against the Spartans, sweeping the freestyle sprints for the Boilermakers.
The freestyle sprints will be tightly contested Saturday with a combined eight NCAA B-cuts between the two teams, along with Aćin. The sophomore returned from injury and had not posted a time all season before the meet against MSU.
Purdue sophomore Ryan Hrosik, who finished second behind Aćin in both the 50 and 100 freestyle against Michigan State, is third in the conference in the 50 free with a time of 19.51 seconds.
Junior Bruno Blaskovic and senior Mohamed Samy will be the top competitors for the Hoosiers. Blaskovic has the fourth-best time in the Big Ten in the 50 free, with a time of 19.61 seconds, as well as the top time in the conference for the 100 free at 42.44 seconds. Samy's time of 42.74 ranks third in the conference.
Junior diver Greg Duncan has eight individual wins this season, the most on Purdue's team. The NCAA Championships qualifier posted scores of 304.9 and 375.35 in the 1-meter and 3-meter springboard events against Michigan State, respectively.
He will compete against reigning Big Ten Diver of the Week Mory Gould Jr. who set NCAA Zone qualifying scores and personal-best marks in both events against Michigan. Along with Gould, both sophomore Cole VanDevender and junior Sheamus Scotty have qualified for the NCAA Zone Championships in the springboard events.
After setting six NCAA B-cut times against Michigan, IU will look to add upon their 46 B-cuts and push into the A-cut times, which would automatically qualify them for the NCAA Championships in Indianapolis. The only event the Hoosiers have qualified for is the 400 freestyle relay with a time of 2:50:11, which is fifth best in the nation.
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