The IU swimming and diving teams have been on a roll this season, with the men’s team currently sitting at 4-0 and No. 1 in the country.
The women's squad is 2-2 with victories against then-No. 18 Florida and then-No. 15 Kentucky.
Three IU swimmers along with Coach Ray Looze were honored this week for their strong starts to the season.
Looze has been named the Competitor SwimSwam coach of the month for October.
Looze led the Hoosiers to one of the most impressive meet performances in the country thus far when the IU men's team took down defending NCAA swimming champion Texas and the third-place team from last season, Florida on Oct. 21.
The men’s team has since continued its road trip and won in Knoxville, Tennessee, last weekend with wins against No. 15 Tennessee and Kentucky.
One of the Hoosiers who propelled the IU men's squad to its 4-0 start is senior Blake Pieroni, who was named collegeswimming.com’s Big Ten Swimmer of the Week on Oct. 31.
Pieroni earned this honor by sweeping all the freestyles, the 50 (19.65), 100 (19.65) and the 200 (1:36.75) in Knoxville last weekend. He was also part of the winning 400 freestyle relay with a time of 2:55.04.
Pieroni was also named the Big Ten Men's Swimmer of the Week on Wednesday based on these performances.
These accolades come after Pieroni was named collegeswimming.com’s National DI Swimmer of the Week on Oct. 24.
The DI Swimmer of the Week award is staying in Bloomington for the second straight week, as junior Vini Lanza earned the honor this week.
Lanza had three victories in Knoxville, the 100 butterfly, 200 butterfly and the 200 individual medley.
Lanza earned five All-America honors last season at the 2017 NCAA Championships, along with being named to first team All-Big Ten.
The Big Ten Women's Swimmer of the Week was awarded to junior Lilly King on Wednesday.
King won the 100m breaststroke in 59.44 and the 200m breaststroke in 2:10.13. Her time in the 100m breaststroke is the fastest among college swimmers this season.
King also helped IU win the 200m medley relay with a time of 1:38.20 in Knoxville.
Both IU teams have this week off before returning to the pool competitively at home for the first time this season against Notre Dame and Cincinnati next week.
TC Malik
