Nov. 2, 2007
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Sophomore John Lytle piled up a pair of second- and third-place finishes in individual and relay events on Friday evening as the University of Notre Dame swimming and diving team traveled to the Boilermaker Aquatic Center for tri-meet action with No. 14 Purdue and No. 22 Texas A&M.
Lytle was second in the 200 Free and third in the 100 Free. He teamed for fourth in the 200 Medley Relay and a third-place spot in the 400 Free Relay.
No. 17 Notre Dame men’s swimming and diving team was dealt defeats by Purdue (81.00-219.00) and Texas A&M (127.00-171.00).
Each of Notre Dame’s dual meet defeats this season have been at the hands of top-25 programs after falling earlier in the season to No. 13 Southern California.
The loss to the Aggies snapped Notre Dame’s two-meet winning streak over Texas A&M. The Irish dropped the inaugural meeting between the two programs in 1992 and are 2-2 all-time against Texas A&M under head coach Tim Welsh.
In an effort to string together back-to-back wins over Purdue for the first time since 1965-1966, the Boilermakers proved too much for Notre Dame to overcome. Notre Dame handed Purdue a 156-144 defeat last season – its first dual meet win over the intrastate foe since the 1966 campaign.
Notre Dame (0-3) will now look ahead to a Nov. 9 meeting at Pittsburgh for a BIG EAST Conference showdown with the Panthers.
200 Medley Relay: Andrew MacKay, Sam Pendergast, Ray Toomey, and John Lytle teamed for a fourth-place finish in 1:33.41 … coming in sixth with a time of 1:34.92 was the tandem of Jeff Wood, Ross Moore, MacKenzie LeBlanc, and Andrew Hoffman.
1,650 Free: Notre Dame’s top finishers were Michael Sullivan, who placed second in 15:56.11, and Andrew Deters (16:09.64), who was fourth.
200 Free: Purdue’s John Schmitt (1:39.21) bested Lytle (1:40.44), who placed second … Hoffman jolted his way to a fourth-place finish in 1:42.17.
100 Back: The Irish placed four swimmers in the top 10 spots … MacKay (52.66) was the highest finisher after placing fourth … behind him was Wood (52.69), Sullivan (53.42), and Thomas Van Volkenburg (54.35).
100 Breast: Paving the way for Notre Dame was fifth-place finisher Daniel Rave … he completed the course in 57.93 … Pendergast was ninth with a time of 1:00.19 … behind him were Peter Koppel (1:00.65) and Eric Swenson (1:02.34).
200 Fly: A trio of men landed in the middle of the pack after all was said and done … MacKenzie LeBlanc was fifth in 1:51.09 … he was immediately preceded by Moore (1:53.44) and Christopher Wills (1:54.29).
50 Free: The top times for Notre Dame came from Toomey (21.60), who was sixth, and Joshua Nosal (21.92), who came in eighth.
100 Free: Third-place went to Lytle and his time of 45.86 … Hoffman (47.04) and Nosal (47.50) finished seventh and eighth, respectively.
200 Back: Sullivan’s 1:53.01 was good for fourth … sixth-place Wills clocked in at 1:53.30 … Jace Hopper cut through the water in 1:57.49 for ninth.
200 Breast: Rave parlayed his fifth-place finish in the 100 Breast by completing the 200 Breast in the same spot … he was ND’s main man in the event with a time of 2:08.14.
500 Free: LeBlanc was third with a time of 4:37.69 … teammate Joseph Deters placed five spots down the line, going the distance in 4:41.93.
100 Fly: Two Fighting Irish swimmers finished in the top 5 … Moore (50.48) was third, and Toomey (51.08) was fifth.
200 Individual Medley: With a time of 1:55.09, Moore earned a seventh-place finish … MacKay (1:56.05) was eighth and LeBlanc (1:56.30) was ninth.
400 Free Relay: Blasting into third place was the quartet of Lytle, Nosal, Van Volkenburg, and Bill Bauman … they notched a time of 3:08.29.
3-meter Diving: Purdue’s Kyle Mitrione took home top honors with a count of 333.50 … Michael Bulfin was second (322.80), Sam Stoner was third (322.35), and fourth-place finisher Steven Crowe totaled 303.40 points.
1-meter Diving: David Coulturi of Purdue racked up 329.90 points to win the 1-meter event … Bulfin (327.80) and Stoner (299.35) took the next two spots for the Irish … Eric Lex was next in line for Notre Dame with a score of 260.06.
–ND–