In front of a packed house, the IU men's swim and dive team swept all swimming and split the diving events in a 188-106 decimation of Purdue on Saturday.
The win is the Hoosiers' 29th consecutive dual-meet victory.
“I even forgot we had a streak,” IU Head Swim Coach Ray Looze said. “We’re just keeping the team doing what they are doing and not even staying focused on it.”
The Hoosiers had little to stress over as they took all 14 of the swimming events and the 1-meter dive.
Sophomore Andrew Capobianco earned his first win on the 1-meter dive this season, finishing with a score of 424.95, his highest of the year. Senior James Connor took second with 388.35, marking the only time he has not won the 1-meter this year.
“As a team we are bringing the energy to the pool and working hard to build off each other,” Capobianco said.
Sophomore Brandon Loschiavo won Purdue’s only event of the meet, scoring 410.40 on the platform dive. Capobianco took second and freshman Cole VanDevender placed third.
On the swimming front, Indiana attained dominant victories in relays, freestyles and distance swimming.
The team of freshman Brandon Hamblin, sophomore Gabriel Fantoni and seniors Ian Finnerty and Vini Lanza squeezed by Purdue in the 200-meter medley relay with a time of 1:27.46.
For the 400-meter free relay, senior Zach Apple, junior Mohamed Samy, sophomore Bruno Blaskovic and freshman Jack Franzman finished two seconds ahead of Purdue to win with a time of 2:57.23.
“There were some really exciting races and our guys had a lot of confidence against our in-state rival,” Looze said.
Apple also won the 50 freestyle, 100 freestyle and 200 freestyle. He was the only Hoosier to earn four victories on the day.
“We knew we could be dominant and just focused on tightening things up,” Apple said. “IU has had a rich past couple of years and it's been a fun year for me being a part of this great culture.”
Freshman distance swimmer Michael Brinegar impressed Looze with strong performances in the 500-meter and 1,000 meter-freestyle.
In the both events, Brinegar took first with times of 4:26.25 and 9:07.43.
Freshman Mikey Calvillo, who won the 400-meter individual medley, finished less than a second behind Brinegar in the 1,000-meter.
“Calvillo performed well and there’s no doubt Michael is spectacular,” Looze said. “The performances like they put on today are a testament to that.”
Looze’s team also outperformed the Boilermakers by significant margins in the butterfly events.
In addition to Fantoni’s 100-meter backstroke victory, the sophomore took the 100-meter butterfly while classmate Corey Gambardella placed first in the 200-meter with a finishing time of 1:47.62.
IU will host its final home dual-meet of the season at 2 p.m Friday against Louisville.
“We’re not complacent with the streak we have and are being engaged in our warm-ups to avoid being ho hum,” Looze said. “I’ve said it before, we have our eyes on winning championships and to do that we gotta keep staying sharp.”
