The Panthers men’s and women’s swimming teams traveled to West Lafayette, Ind., last… The Panthers men’s and women’s swimming teams traveled to West Lafayette, Ind., last Saturday to take on Big Ten powers Northwestern and Purdue.

Despite putting up good times and effort, both squads faced mixed results, as the men’s team defeated No. 20 Northwestern, 164-134, but lost to Purdue, 194-104. The women’s team could not sustain its fast start as it fell to both Northwestern, 171-129, and Purdue, 183-117.

Men

The Panthers men’s squad (2-2 overall, 0-0 Big East) fell behind early in the 400-meter medley relay as both Purdue and Northwestern captured the top three spots. Purdue’s relay team of Louis Paul, Tamas Bessenyei, Tad Sayce and Jeremy Wright topped the leader board with a time of three minutes and 21.08 seconds.

The Panthers relay team of Kenny Shelhorse, Christopher Ippoliti, Michael Bernardi and Darryl Washington finished just seven seconds behind the Purdue’s first place team in the event, but could not get any higher than fourth place.

The Panthers had better success in their second event of the afternoon, as Eric Limkemann (9:27.03) and Hannes Kohnke (9:33.95) garnered second and third place finishes in the 1000-meter freestyle.

“It was nice to see Hannes Kohnke finally step up and race to his capabilities in the 500 and 1000 freestyles,” head coach Chuck Knoles said. “Both of those swims were his lifetime, in-season bests.”

The Panthers finally scored their first top place finish in the 50-meter freestyle, as Mike Grube fought off Purdue’s Ignatius Goh and Tad Sayce with a time of 20.87. In the closely contested race, third place’s Sayce touched the wall just a half second after Grube did.

The Panthers displayed their potential in their next event, as Grube and Washington finished first and second in the 100-meter freestyle with times of 45.94 and 46.60, respectively.

“Mike Grube showed his prowess in the 50 and 100 freestyles,” Knoles said.

Although the Panthers fell to the Boilermakers by 90 points, Knoles’ team was able to fight off Northwestern with second place finishes in the 400-meter freestyle relay and 200-meter backstroke. Shelhorse finished .84 seconds behind Purdue’s first place swimmer.

Hoping to see a better performance from his team, Knoles said the weekend results were “unexpected.” Knoles, however, encouragingly noted that their afternoon victory was over a ranked opponent.

Women

Pitt’s (1-3, 0-0) women’s squad started the afternoon with a victory, as the 400-meter medley relay team of Carolyne Savini, Ryan Redman, Kelli Tielking and Jenny Livingstone finished the race in 3:51.14.

“They literally took apart both Purdue and Northwestern in the first race of the meet,” Knoles said.

Senior Emily Colley continued the Panthers’ early success with her first place finish in the 1000-meter freestyle. With a time of 10:07.09, Colley blew past the competition by finishing three seconds faster than Northwestern’s Erica Rose (10:10.75) and Amy Mueller (10:13.26).

The rest of the afternoon, however, did not go so well for the Panthers, as Purdue and Northwestern were able to capture the top places in the remaining 14 events.

“I really expected that our women were going to have the better chance of winning at least one of the dual meets,” Knoles said.

Opposing swimmers such as Purdue’s Erica Chandler, who fought off Savini (1:52.01) in the 200-meter freestyle with a time 1:51.70, pushed Northwestern and Purdue past the Panthers on their way to victory.

In a show of dominance, Purdue swimmers Jenni Bean, Tracy Duchac and Kim Paradeise finished 1-2-3 in the 100-meter freestyle with their respective times of 52.05, 52.07 and 52.29.

Pitt was able to place second in three of the remaining seven events for the afternoon. Savini continued her early season success with her time of 2:05.56 in the 200-meter breaststroke, while Colley finished second behind Chandler in the 500-meter freestyle with her time of 4:59.14.

Tielking finished second in the 100-meter butterfly behind Northwestern’s Carmen Cosgrove. Her time of 57.67 was just .04 seconds faster than Purdue’s Autumn Sample.

Despite losing to both Big Ten squads, Knoles noted that the “our learning curve is quite steep.” With nearly half the team made up of freshmen, Knoles is confident that the scores will reflect their talent as the season goes on.

“We made strides this weekend toward being more competitive,” Knoles said.

The Panthers’ next meet is the Pittsburgh Invitational from Nov. 22 to 24 at Trees Pool. Texas A’M, Michigan State, UConn and Buffalo are all expected to attend the annual event.