Louisville Books Three Relay A Cuts as Women Win Purdue Invitational
The Louisville women’s team swept all five relays, three in NCAA A cut times, in winning the Purdue Invitational, held in West Lafayette from Wednesday through Friday.
The Cardinals started the meet Wednesday with a Burke Natatorium record in the 200 free relay, going 1:27.03 in the 200 freestyle relay behind the team of Gabi Albiero, Christiana Regenauer, Julia Dennis and Ella Welch.
The 200 medley foursome of Abby Hay, Cecilia Viberg, Regenauer and Albiero also roared to an A cut in 1:35.01, then they finished the meet with Regenauer, Albiero, Dennis and Welch going 3:12.47 in the 400 free relay for a third A cut.
In between, they also won the 400 medley relay (Hay, Viberg, Tristen Ulett and Albiero in 3:32.22) and the 800 free relay (Ulett, Paige Hetrick, Albiero and Regenauer in 7:05.82) to finish with 947 points and easily win the team title over Northwestern and Purdue. The Boilermakers claimed the title with 864.5 points.
Purdue Invitational Team Scoring
Men’s
1. Purdue University 864.5 2. Louisville, University of 764.5 3. Northwestern University 513.5 4. California Baptist University 429 5. U.S. Naval Academy 315 6. Missouri State University 307.5 7. Southern Illinois University 189
Women’s
1. Louisville, University of 947 2. Northwestern University 716.5 3. Purdue University 566.5 4. Florida International Univ. 441 5. Missouri State University 277 6. Marshall University 213.5 7. California Baptist University 163.5 8. Illinois State University 158 9. Southern Illinois University 155
The women’s meet turned generally into a playground for Louisville. Sweeping the top four spots in the 100 fly and the 100 free or getting spots two through six in the 50 free were typical returns.
Albiero was one of three double individual winners, claiming the 100 fly in 51.18 and the 100 free in 47.49. She was also third in the 50 free.
Liberty Williams won the 500 free in 4:40.33 and the 1,650 in 16:10.48. Both times, she just edged out the Northwestern duo of Lola Mull and Ashley Strouse.
Ulett was the other double victory, claiming the 200 IM and 200 fly. Rye Ulett won the 200 back to go with second in the 400 IM and fourth in the 500. Hetrick claimed the 200 free and was second in the 200 back. Hay won the 200 breast after having been second in the 200 IM. Regenauer finished second in the 50 free, 100 fly and 100 free. Paige Kuwata was the final winner, capturing the 400 IM.
The only individual NCAA A cut of the meet came via Northwestern’s Jasmine Nocetini. The FIU transfer won the 50 free in 21.59 seconds, clipping under the standard by .07 seconds. She also won the 100 breast.
Strouse added a silver medal in the 200 free for the Wildcats. Miriam Guevara was second in the 200 fly and third in the 100 back, while Hannah Brunzell was third in both breaststroke events.
Southern Illinois picked up a win via Celia Pulido, who went 52.57 to win the 100 back.
Purdue dominated in diving, sweeping the podium in platform behind Maggie Merriman’s score of 299.0. Third on platform was Sophia McAfee, who won both springboard events. The 1-meter was a 1-2 result with teammate Daryn Wright, who also placed second on platform.
The men’s half of the Purdue Invitational meet didn’t produce an NCAA A cut, but it brought fast times.
Brady Samuels’ Day 2 effort powered the Boilermakers’ burst to the finish line. He won the 100 butterfly in 46.17 seconds, just edging Navy’s Jonah Harm by .02 seconds, then turned around to claim the 100 back in 46.36. He was denied a third win in the 100 freestyle on Friday by .06 seconds, with Louisville’s Abdelrahman Elaraby going 42.85. Samuels also tied with Elaraby for second in the 50 in 19.58 seconds. (Harm’s time downs his Naval Academy and Patriot League record in the event.)
Samuels helped Purdue win the last two relays, the 800 free and 400 free. Joining him on both was Nick Sherman, who won the 200 IM in 1:44.49, the 200 breast in 1:55.99 (he had been 1:54.32 in prelims) and finished second in the 100 breast with a time of 53.07.
Purdue got a massive boost from diving, where Jordan Rzepka swept all three events. He topped out at 400.75 on 1-meter, winning by a 62-point margin. Second on both springboards was teammate Sam Bennett.
Louisville rode its freestyle depth to second place in the team standings. It began with a sweep of the top four spots in the 500 free, led by Gustavo Saldo’s time of 4:17.06. Murilo Sartori was second in the 500 and finished second in prelims of the 200 before scratching out of finals. Third in the 500 was 200 free winner Denis Loktev, who went 1:34.38. Ilia Sibirtsev went from fourth in the 500 to wining the mile by more than 12 seconds, in 14:58.12.
Sartori anchored the Cardinals’ winning 400 medley relay. The anchor on the victorious 200 free and 200 medley relays was Michael Eastman, who finished third in the 100 free and fifth in the 50.
The 50 brought a surprise winner in California Baptist’s Remi Fabiani. He went 19.36, an NCAA B cut, to beat the field in both prelims and finals. It’s a best time for Fabiani, who entered at 19.86. Fabiani was also second to Loktev in the 200 free and third in the 100 back. Teammate Jonathan Reiter was second in the 200 breast and third in the 100 breast.
Northwestern finished third behind Tyler Lu, who made the podium twice. He won the 400 IM on Thursday in 3:50.46, besting Louisville’s Jackson Millard by a half-second. Sherman had denied Lu a title in the 200 IM on the opening day, going 1:45.36 for silver, and he was also second in the 200 back and fourth in the 100 back.
Northwestern’s Ben Miller won the 200 fly in 1:43.88, and Kevin Houseman threw down a big 51.83 to claim the 100 breast by more than a second.
Perhaps the biggest finals swim of the night came in the 200 back, where Southern Illinois’s Ruard Van Renen more than four seconds to go from seventh in prelims to the win in 1:42.68. He also finished second in the 100 back.
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