Purdue Swimming & Diving hosts the 2012 Indiana Intercollegiates at the Boilermaker Aquatic Center.
John Klinge has helped elevate the national profile of the Purdue women's swimming and diving program in his four years as head coach. He was named the Big Ten Coach of the Year after leading the Boilermakers to historic highs in 2009-10.
Three individual NCAA Championships qualifiers and 16 new school records highlighted the 2011-12 season for Purdue. Emily Fogle and Lauren Roth both made their second appearances at the NCAA Championships, where they were joined by freshman Rhiannon Sheets. One day after scoring in the 100 breaststroke, Fogle won the consolation final of the 200 breaststroke at the national championship meet to garner her second Honorable Mention All-America award of the weekend.
The Boilermakers' 16 new records established in 2011-12 featured seven individual team benchmarks, seven individual freshman bests and two relay records. Purdue has now set new school records in every swimming during Klinge's tenure. Nine swimmers also represented the program at the 2012 U.S. Olympic Team Trials in Omaha.
Fogle, Roth and Sheets accounted for 10 of the 14 new individual marks. Sheets broke school benchmarks in the 100 and 200 butterfly, times that doubled as new freshman records. Her season-best swims in the 100 and 200 freestyle were also first-year marks.
Francesca Marr did not join the team until January but still managed to also post a Purdue-record time in the 400 IM at the Big Ten Championships that doubled as a freshman record. Amy Katz, Fogle and Lauren Gustafson swam on both recording-setting medley relay teams at the Big Ten Championships. Kylie Vogel and Sheets split the butterfly duties on the relay quartets.
Fogle was part of a record-setting event on all four days of the Big Ten Championships. She set new records in the 100 and 200 breaststroke and 200 IM. The sophomore posted NCAA automatic qualifying times in both breaststroke events, officially punching her ticket to the NCAA Championships.
Fogle and Marr eclipsed the longest-standing active team individual records. Fogle was one of four competitors to finish under one minute in the extremely fast A final of the 100 breaststroke. Her time of 59.53 eclipsed Lindsay Lange's record that had stood since 2003. In the 200 breaststroke, she was the runner up in the A final at the Big Ten Championships and broke the school record for the fifth time in her career at the NCAA meet.
Marr established her new individual record in the 400 IM while winning the C Final. She eclipsed the freshman record in the morning prelims and came back in the finals with an even better time that bested a Purdue record that had stood since 2005.
Carly Marshall (50 free) and Amy Katz (100 back) also accounted for new freshman records at the Big Ten Championships. Lauren Roth (500 free) and Sheets (100 and 200 fly) enjoyed their record-setting weekends at the Ohio State Invitational in December.
Nine NCAA Championships qualifiers and five new relay records established at the Big Ten Championships highlighted the 2010-11 season. The nine NCAA qualifiers - seven swimmers and two divers - matched a program record established in 2010. Lisa Butler, Kara Cook, Emily Fogle, Lauren Gustafson, Caitlin Hamilton, Ariel Martin, Erin Mertz, Lauren Nichols and Allie Smith represented the Boilers at the national championship meet in Austin, Texas.
Mertz scored from all three boards at NCAAs, highlighted by a career-best third-place showing in the 3-meter competition that earned the senior All-American honors. Joining Mertz as Honorable Mention All-Americans were Cook (platform diving) and Hamilton (1,650 free) as well as the 400 and 800 relay teams. Butler, Martin and Gustafson swam on both scoring relays along with Smith (400) and Fogle (800).
Purdue scored 36 points at the NCAA Championships to place 25th nationally.
Purdue set new records in all five relay events at the Big Ten Championships. Butler, Martin and Gustafson were each part of four of the five new relay records. Lauren Roth (three), Fogle (two) and Smith (two) also contributed to multiple record-setting relays.
Individually, new program records were established in seven events at the Big Ten Championships. Martin (100 & 200 free), Cook (platform diving), Fogle (200 breast), Hamilton (500 free), Mertz (3-meter diving) and Smith (100 back) all set a new benchmark in Purdue history. Fogle's time in the 100 breast was also a freshman record.
Purdue continued to excel academically as well. Smith was selected as the Big Ten's female recipient of the prestigious Wayne Duke Postgraduate Scholarship Award. She was the second Boilermaker to be selected for the honor, which is awarded to only one male and one female student-athlete each year.
Twenty-seven members of the program, a team record and the most of any winter sport at Purdue, earned Academic All-Big Ten honors in 2011. The Boilermakers ranked seventh nationally with a 3.51 team GPA during the fall 2010 semester.
Capped by a program-record nine different All-Americans, which nearly doubled the previous best of five, at the NCAA Championships held in their home pool, the 2009-10 season could go down as the one that began the Boilermakers' rise up the national standings.
Freshman Caitlin Hamilton took down Purdue records in the 500, 1,000 and 1,650 freestyle events multiple times each throughout her first collegiate season. She finished second in the 1,650 at the Big Ten Championships in a time of 16:02.61 that obliterated the previous record of 16:26.31 that had stood since 1998. She then went on to finish eighth at the NCAA Championships in 16:02.01 to earn All-America status and record the highest national finish in Purdue history. Both 1,000 splits set a new program standard, as well, and the 500 record was broken twice at the Big Ten Championships.
The Boilermakers also had All-American swims from Allie Smith in the 100 backstroke and the 400 and 800 freestyle relays and the 200 medley relay. The 16th-place finish stands as the best in program history, and the nine different All-Americans, as well as the five different scoring events, also rank as program highs.
At the Big Ten Championships, the Boilermakers broke 17 program records and five freshman records while recording 94 season-best times during the four-day meet. Purdue also earned five second-place finishes, taking runner-up honors in nearly one-quarter of the 21 contested events.
Junior Ariel Martin led the charge as she took down the 50 and 200 freestyle records twice, the 100 freestyle record once and swam on record-breaking 200, 400 and 800 freestyle relays as well as the 200 medley relay. Freshmen Seraphina Van and Emily McIlrath became the fastest first-year Boilermakers. Van bettered freshman records in the 100 butterfly and 200 breaststroke, while McIlrath took down the 100 breaststroke standard.
The all-time performance lists have undergone massive reconstruction in Klinge's two seasons. None of the top-five lists in any of the 19 swimming events look the same as when Klinge started two seasons ago, and 15 have new record holders.
In addition to success in the pool, Klinge is adamant that his team live up to stringent academic standards. The 2009-10 team was honored as an Scholar All-American Team by the College Swimming Coaches Association of America after posting the 14th-highest cumulative grade-point average in Division I. Eighteen Boilermakers also earned individual recognition from the CSCAA. Purdue also has had 33 Academic All-Big Ten honorees and 12 Big Ten Distinguished Scholar Award winners in the past two seasons.
When the collegiate season ended, Purdue swimmers continued to impress at the ConocoPhillips USA Swimming National Championships. Hamilton recorded the highest individual finish as she placed 13th in the 1,650-meter freestyle, while the 800 freestyle relay finished fourth and the 400 freestyle relay touched in sixth.
Klinge's background includes time spent serving his country with the United States Marine Corps in addition to coaching stops at the collegiate, club and high school coaching levels. This unique resume builder helped boost his appeal among the athletics department administrators.
Klinge is the seventh head coach in the 38-year history of the program and the first male since Fred Kahms was at the helm from 1981 through 1985. He has a vision for success at Purdue, which is, "To establish and ensure an environment where motivated and talented student-athletes strive for excellence in swimming and diving and in the classroom, and work together to consistently challenge for Big Ten and NCAA championships."
Klinge, a native of Richmond, Ind., graduated from Purdue in 1994 with a bachelor's degree in civil engineering. He returned to his home state after spending five years as an assistant to men's head coach Bill Wadley at Ohio State. Wadley promoted Klinge to associate head coach in May of 2008, shortly after the Buckeyes posted their second straight top-20 showing at the NCAA Championships. The Scarlet and Gray were 12th in 2007 and 16th in 2008.
Klinge's last Buckeye squad finished 13th in the national dual-meet rankings and broke a total of 10 school records before sending 11 student-athletes to the NCAA Championships. Senior sprinter Matt Voelker placed 15th in the 50 freestyle to capture honorable-mention All-America honors and was part of three Ohio State relay teams (800 freestyle, 200 medley and 400 medley) that finished in the top 16 to earn honorable-mention All-America accolades.
While at Purdue, Klinge qualified for the 1992 United States Olympic Trials and went on to place 15th in the 200 backstroke. The former team captain also earned U.S. Swimming All-America honors in 1991 for placing fifth in the 200 backstroke and was awarded All-Big Ten honors in 1990 and 1994.
Klinge left Purdue as its second-fastest swimmer in the 100 and 200 backstroke events and 200 and 400 IM. He also held the Lambert Pool record in the 200 backstroke (1:49.68) and 200 IM (1:51.47) when he concluded his collegiate career. More than 14 years later, Klinge's lifetime-best 1:46.36 in the 200 backstroke still holds up among the five-fastest times in Boilermaker history even though Purdue moved into a much faster and improved facility at the start of this decade.
Klinge made an immediate transition into coaching following his senior year, serving as an undergraduate assistant coach to Purdue men's head coach Dan Ross for the 1994-95 season.
Klinge joined the Buckeyes after serving as the head coach at both Bozeman High School and Bozeman Barracuda Swim Club in Bozeman, Mont. During his tenure at Bozeman, Klinge led the Hawks to five state championships and coached multiple National Age Group Top 16, Junior National, United States Open and high school All-American swimmers.
Klinge is a commissioned officer for the United States Marine Corps. He has received two Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medals for various outstanding performances.
Klinge is married to the former Chris Anderson, who also swam for Purdue University. They have two sons, Jack, 7, and Matthew, 4, and one daughter, Madison, born July 25, 2010.
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