Thursday night, MSU’s men’s swimming and diving met for the first day of the Big Ten Championships in West Lafayette, Ind. at Purdue University.
The highlight of the night came by senior Ian Rodriguez, junior Alex Kandt, and sophomores Alex Trompke and Nick Leshok in the 200 relay, as the quartet finished at 1:27.03, breaking the previous 2013 record of the program, which was 1:27.70. This put the Spartans in ninth place for the event.
Moving forward into the night, though, head coach Matt Gianiodis said the 800-yard freestyle relay was “disappointing,” with MSU’s junior Adam Marsh, sophomore Lachlan McLeish, Leshok and sophomore Joe Szczupakiewicz finishing at 6:37.96 in 10th place.
The Spartans ended the night’s two events in tenth place with 74 points, but will continue competing in events for the next three days. Tomorrow, MSU will face the preliminaries of the 500 free, 200 IM, 50 free and one-meter dive, with finals of those events happening in the evening alongside the 400 medley relay.
Despite mixed the results, Gianiodis said the team is looking forward to the following days.
“We have some good momentum moving forward,” Gianiodis said. “We have a nice day tomorrow and are ready to swim well.”
Support student media! Please consider donating to The State News and help fund the future of journalism.
