Hoosiers defeat Boilermakers in West Lafayette

When the IU men’s swim team woke up Saturday, it was down by 22 to arch-rival Purdue.

When the team went to bed that same night, it had claimed a 166-134 victory.

It was down 30-8 because the diving competition had already taken place Jan. 21. IU coach Ray Looze estimated that his team needed to win 10 of the 14 remaining events.

It managed to win nine of them.

“Ten would have been a for-sure win,” Looze said. “But we were able to get away with winning nine because of our depth.”

In two events, the 200-yard butterfly and the 200-yard individual medley, Hoosiers took the top four spots. Sophomore Eric Ress led the team with three victories (200-yard IM, 100 and 200-yard backstroke) after being unable to swim against Purdue last year due to injury.

The dual meet season ended for the men, but they will travel to Ohio State next weekend to compete in the OSU Winter Open.

“Anytime you end your dual meet season on a winning note, that’s a good thing,” Looze said. “But we also know that we could have performed a lot better. We left a few races in the pool.”

Through the first five days of the U.S. Diving Winter Nationals, the men were in third place, with the women running sixth. IU was in second place overall behind Texas. In the individual competition, sophomore Zac Nees was seventh while freshman Laura Ryan was fourth.