Purdue Invite: SIU’s Celia Pulido Sets School, Meet Record on Wild Second Day

Celia Pulido; Photo Courtesy: Southern Illinois Athletics

Purdue Invite: SIU’s Celia Pulido Sets School, Meet Record on Wild Second Day

Southern Illinois’s Celia Pulido lowered her school record in the women’s 100 backstroke and set the Purdue Invitational record on Friday, the second day of the three-day meet.

Purdue leads the women’s competition with 712 points, well ahead of Northwestern’s 495.5. The Northwestern men (722.5) and Purdue (624.5) are in a relatively tight race.

Team Standings

 Women - Team Rankings - Through Event 27                     
 
  1. Purdue University                 712   2. Northwestern University         495.5
  3. University of Illinois            349   4. Missouri State University         229
  5. Marshall University               194   6. Southern Illinois University      176
  7. Illinois State University       174.5   8. McKendree University              117

 Men - Team Rankings - Through Event 28                      
 
  1. Northwestern University         722.5   2. Purdue University               624.5
  3. McKendree University              369   4. Missouri State University         268
  5. Southern Illinois University      162

Pulido won by nearly two seconds over Illinois’ Suvana Baskar. Both posted NCAA B cuts. Pulido took down the meet record set in 2017 by Indiana’s Ali Rockett.

Baskar’s time of 53.66 lowers her program record in the 100 back. (She also set the best time in program history in the 50 back to start the 200 medley relay.)

It was part of an engrossing day of action. The standout race was Maggie Papanicholas of Northwestern and Illinois State’s Madyson Morse tying for the win in 1:00.80. That’s an NCAA B cut. (Papanicholas had gone 1:00.76 in prelims.)

Northwestern prevailed in a thrilling 200 medley relay in a time of 1:39.26, .11 ahead of Illinois. May Peterson, Papanicholas, Ayla Spitz and Lindsay Ervin were the winning squad, Ervin overturning a .06-second deficit with a split of 22.44 off the end.

The 100 fly was a tight one, too. Sydney Stoll won in 54.24 seconds, an Illinois program record. She edged Brinly Hardy of Prude by .03 seconds and Missouri State’s Sami Roemer by .05 for the win.

Purdue’s Kate Mauser won the 400 IM with an NCAA B cut of 4:15.52. Sara Jass of Illinois was second.

Spitz added a B cut in the 200 free in 1:44.81 to win in a 1-2 with teammate Sydney Smith. Northwestern coasted to the win in the 800 free relay, with Spitz, Smith, Annika Wagner (third in the 400 IM) and Hana Shimizu-Bowers.

Sophia McAfee scored 309.85 on 1-meter diving to win, with the Boilermaker sweeping the top four spots.

Northwestern flooded the podium. The Wildcats finished the night by winning the 800 free relay with Jan Michal Karlczak, Ben Forbes, Andrew Martin and Caden Duncan in 6:27.55, a winning margin of 3.5 seconds. Karcolczak was second in the individual 200 free, Duncan third.

Diego Nosak scored a B cut of 3:44.52 in the 400 IM in a 1-2 result with teammate Tyler Lu. Aaron Baltaytis finished second in the 100 fly, ahead of teammate Stuart Seymour, and third in the 100 back, a spot behind teammate David Grechik. Kevin Houseman won the 100 breast in 52.43.

Brady Samuels lowered the meet record in the 100 back, going 45.81 to slice nearly four tenths off Mitchell Whyte’s time from 2021. He led off the team’s winning 200 medley relay, with Andrew Witty, Charlie King and Idris Muhammad going 1:24.72. Purdue dominated 3-meter diving, with Jordan Rzepka scored 383.45 in a 1-2-3 sweep.

The other two wins went to Division II McKendree, which more than held its own. Jack Lustig won the 100 fly in 46.65, an NCAA Division I B cut. Alireza Yavari went 1:36.06 to win the 200 free.

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