Blue swimmers roll over Boilermakers, 138-103 By Benjamin Singer Daily Sports Writer After an upset victory over Stanford last week, nothing seems very difficult for the Michigan men's swimming team. A trip to No. 23 Purdue, even with four Wolverines unable to swim due to illness, certainly was not a challenge. Michigan (2-0 Big Ten, 5-2 overall) defeated the Boilermakers (2-2, 4-2), 138-103, for the 48th time last Saturday. The Wolverines were missing sophomore Tim Siciliano and freshmen Garrett Mangieri, Tony Kurth and Justin Drake because of the flu. But even with some experienced swimmers absent from the meet, the team easily had enough firepower for the win. Because Purdue's antiquated facility only has six lanes instead of eight, Michigan did not need to shuffle the lineup around despite missing some swimmers. Rather than finding replacements to fill the empty lanes, the swimmers were simply dropped from the event, moving everyone else up a slot. "We didn't have to change the lineup a great deal," assistant coach Eric Namesnik said. "We were taking the whole team anyway, so there were no new additions." The usual leaders for Michigan made the missing players a non-issue as the Wolverines got their points in the same events as usual. All-American junior Chris Thompson placed first in the 1000- and 500-yard freestyles. Senior tri-captain and diver Josh Trexler won his two events in both 1-meter dive events. Four other Wolverines had first-place finishes as well, and in four different events Michigan took first and second place. Purdue won the 400-yard medley relay and put Michigan in a hole to start the meet. This situation was nothing new to Michigan. "That usually happens," Thompson said. "We always catch up after the first relay." Thompson helped the team catch up by swimming a 9:16.78 in the 1000 free, followed by senior tri-captain Mike McWha's 9:20.06. Once the race was over, Thompson had to go right back to work. "I didn't go real hard in the 1000 so I could have something left for the 200," Thompson said. While Thompson placed second in the 200-yard freestyle with a 1:40.54, sophomore Chuck Kennedy came in first with a 1:40.33. The change from Michigan's typical lineup gave Kennedy a chance at a new event as he swam the 200 free rather than his usual event of the 500 free. With senior tri-captain Scott Meyer and sophomore Matt Raines placing 1-2 in the 50-yard freestyle, the Wolverines put themselves in a position where they needed to make sure they did not make any mistakes and could cruise to victory. Beginning with freshman Ryan Earhart's time of 1:49.28 in the 200 backstroke for the eighth event, Michigan had three-straight first place finishes. Thompson had a 4:26.66 in the 500 free and sophomore Jeff Hopwood swam a 2:04.24 in the 200 breaststroke. Originally on page 3B in the 1-24-2000 issue of the Daily.