IU drops meets on the road

The IU men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams took to the road Saturday, with similar and disappointing results.

The No. 12 IU men fell to No. 10 Tennessee 163.5-119.5 and No. 11 Georgia 149-134. The women also dropped a close meet against Purdue 161-139.

IU coach Ray Looze said he believes many of the struggles could be attributed to swimming away from Bloomington.

“I think we learned a valuable lesson as far as what it takes on the road in the SEC against two very, very good teams, and I think that experience will get us prepared for Louisville and Virginia Tech next week and Purdue beyond that," Looze said.

Despite the challenge of swimming in the Allan Jones Intercollegiate Aquatic Center in Knoxville, Tenn., many Hoosiers swam with favorable results.

Sophomore Eric Ress won both the 100 and 200-yard backstroke, while seniors Bryan Chovanec and Ante Zoricic won the 50-yard freestyle and 100-yard freestyle,
respectively.

At Purdue, a number of the women reached the podium, only to finish just short of beating rival Purdue, which improves to 6-0 in dual meets this season.

But IU assistant coach Marie Marsman said the loss was not the type that will repeat itself.

“We lost some close races, which was tough,” Marsman said. “But we carried a really good attitude the whole way through, and it’s just setting us up well to practice our race strategy for the conference meet.”

Senior Brittany Barwegen won the 100 and 200-yard butterfly, sophomore Taylor Wohrley won the 200-yard backstroke, freshman Sara Delay won the 50-yard freestyle, and junior Alyssa Vavra won the 200-yard IM.

Next weekend, both teams travel to Louisville to take on Louisville and Virginia Tech.

— Alex McCarthy