Southern Illinois' Top End Stars on Day 2 of Purdue Invite
Today at 10:24 PM
By Braden Keith on SwimSwam
2024 Purdue Invite
- November 21-23, 2024
- Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana
- Short Course Yards (25 yards), Prelims/Finals
- Live Results
- Day 1 Full Results (PDF)
- Day 2 Full Results (PDF)
- Live Results
The Southern Illinois women lit the pool up in prelims on Friday at the 2024 Purdue Invite, but the hosts from Purdue maintained a lead in both the men’s and women’s meets after two days of competition.
Team Scores After Day 2
Women:
- Purdue – 901
- FIU – 505
- Grand Canyon – 309
- Southern Illinois – 301
- Illinois State – 267
- McKendree – 147
Men:
- Purdue – 599
- Grand Canyon – 594
- McKendree – 488
- Southern Illinois – 308
Women’s Recap
SIU’s two star swimmers Celia Pulido and Olivia Herron both had big swims in prelims. Pulido punched a 51.07 in the heats of the 100 back to ensure a third-straight trip to the NCAA Championships, while Herron broke a Missouri Valley Conference Record in the 100 breaststroke with a 1:00.17.
While neither was able to match their times from prelims, they both had more-than-enough to win their finals. Pulido finished first in the 100 back to win by 2.4 seconds over Purdue’s Abby Marcukaitis, who was 2nd in 53.63.
Two events earlier, Herron won the 100 breaststroke in 1:00.84, which would have almost matched her best time of 1:00.83, done last week, coming into the meet. Southern Illinois also got a win in the 100 fly from Maria Padron Salazar, who touched in 53.07.
In spite of the dominance of the front-three of that relay in individual events, though, the Salukis finished 2nd in the session-opening 200 medley relay in 1:37.57. Florida International was able to pull out a win when senior Jessica Shpilko, runner-up in the 50 free on Thursday, split 22.16 to overcome SIU anchor Susana Hernandez (22.52). The other key leg for the Panthers was a 26.83 breaststroke split from Frida Loebersli, who was 2nd to Heron in the 100 breast later in the night.
Southern Illinois won the 400 medley relay on Thursday.
Hernandez, the SIU medley relay anchor, is more of a 200 freestyler and she won that race Friday in 1:47.64. In the process, she beat out the deep Purdue middle distance crew that took the top six spots in the 500 free a night earlier.
The home team picked up their lone individual swimming win of the night in the 400 IM when Kathryn Ackerman, a 5th year transfer from Michigan, won the 400 IM in dominating fashion in 4:10.61. The old record of 4:12.75 was set in 2016 by Nika Karlina Petric.
Besides that win, Purdue also grabbed a win in the women’s 1-meter competition thanks to Daryn Wright (327.30), and seven of the top eight spots. They then used their middle distance depth to go 1-2-3 in the 800 free relay with the winning squad touching in 7:18.10. Freshman Adele Sands led that group off with a 1:48.43, which was the fastest split of the field on a flat or rolling start.
For good measure, they also went 1-2 in the women’s team diving event.
Men’s Recap
The men’s wins were well-shared on night 2 of the meet, though Southern Illinois did well here too. Alex Santiago won the 100 fly in 46.25 beating out last year’s D2 200 fly champion Jackson Lustig of McKendree (46.60).
That was Santiago’s first official career 100 fly (prelims, then finals), though his coaches say that he was exploring the event a lot during summer training. It was a “B” cut, but he would need to drop about a second for NCAA invite consideration in that event – though he earned his invite last year in the 50 free.
He later split 19.62 to lead off SIU’s winning 200 free relay that finished in 1:18.30. Also on that squad were Donat Csuvarszki (19.72), AJ Terry (19.29), and Willem Huggins (19.67).
The Grand Canyon men, in spite of giving up a lot of ground in diving, tiptoed closer to Purdue thanks to a win in the opening 200 medley relay in 1:26.12. Alex Volkov (back – 21.71), Harper Houk (breast – 24.17), Jasu Ovaskainen (fly – 20.75), and Mario Perez (free – 19.49). Volkov was the key leg there, giving them a half-second lead to start as they fought off the SIU relay that finished 2nd in 1:26.34.
Santiago split 20.29 on the fly leg of that relay – with a very slow .64 exchange.
Volkov backed up his relay split with a dominating 45.93 win in the 100 backstroke. That’s about three-tenths shy of his best time from last season, which only left him about a tenth out of NCAA Championship qualifying.
That was one of two individual wins for Grand Canyon on the day: Colin Campbell also won the 400 IM in 3:52.93.
Purdue’s Max Blume picked up a win in the 100 breaststroke in 54.05, which was about half-a-second shy of his personal best. He beat out a best time from McKendree sophomore Polat Tasbasi (54.15), who was 5th at last year’s Summit League Championship meet while swimming for the now-eliminated Lindenwood Lions.
McKendree got a win in the men’s 200 free from Vova Gavrysh, who was runner-up in the 200 IM on Thursday. The 19-year-old newcomer knocked more than three seconds off his best time in the 200 free to finish in 1:35.45, which would have placed 4th at last year’s D2 National Championship meet.
Just like on Thursday, Purdue dominated the diving event to maintain a lead. They went 1-2-3-4-5 on men’s 3-meter led by a 456.53 from National Team diver Jordan Rzepka.
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