426 items found for your search. If no results were found please broaden your search.
(02/25/11 6:45pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The road trip up to Minneapolis, Minn., for the Big Ten Championships didn’t seem to adversely affect the IU men swimmers, as they started the meet off in record-breaking fashion Wednesday.Even though they finished third in the 800-yard freestyle relay, the team of sophomore Eric Ress, senior Titus Knight, junior Cody Weik and sophomore Jim Barbiere broke the IU record for the event by a massive six seconds. Ress opened up the relay by setting an IU individual record for the 200-yard freestyle. The relay time was good enough to qualify all four swimmers for the NCAA Championships.“We believe that the 200 freestyle is the cornerstone event of any program,” IU coach Ray Looze said. “So to be able to put together a good 800 freestyle relay is a very promising sign.”The opening event — the 200-yard medley relay — yielded a sixth place finish for the team of freshman James Wells, freshman Cody Miller, Weik and senior Bryan Chovanec. Looze stressed that the Hoosiers needed to do well during the preliminary races on Thursday and they did just that. Six Hoosiers qualified for finals, leading to four top-five finishes; sophomore Ryan Hinshaw finished fourth in the 500-yard freestyle, followed by Barbiere in fifth. Ress touched the wall third in the 200-yard individual medley. In the 50-yard freestyle, Chovanec finished fourth.Sophomore Zac Nees finished second in the 1-meter diving competition, followed by a third place finish in the final event of the night: the 400-yard medley relay.Through the first five events, the Hoosiers hold onto second place, trailing Michigan 259.5-251. They hold a 68-point lead over defending champion Ohio State.Finals will take place at 7:30 p.m. both nights.
(02/23/11 4:06am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The IU women put on a show for spectators last weekend, winning the Big Ten Championship by a 243-point margin. Starting Wednesday, the men look to deliver an encore. The Men’s Big Ten Championships, in Minneapolis, Minn., start today and continue until Saturday night. Many of the men were present to support the women when they defeated the rest of the Big Ten. “I hope they understand how hard it’s going to be, and that’s what I’m going to be telling them,” IU coach Ray Looze said. “This is going to be a challenge, and they could be behind for a lot of the meet, but the only thing that matters is what happens in the end.”While Looze said he wants his team to take the meet seriously, he doesn’t want the pressure to get to the athletes.“I hope they watched how the women handled that,” Looze said. “Just being loose and having a good time, just kind of deflecting the pressure and turning it on its backside by being zany and just taking the more spirited approach.”While swimmers like sophomore Jim Barbiere agreed that being relaxed and loose is important, Barbiere said he finds importance in “learning to get your mind in the right place before the meet.”“Having fun is a huge part of it but having fun comes through winning,” Barbiere said. “So that’s what we usually feed off of: staying focused through that.”The competition will be tough, with six Big Ten teams ranked in the top 25. Michigan, which has won the most Big Ten Championships with 33, is ranked highest, at No. 9 nationally. The No. 11 Buckeyes, who won the conference title last year for the first time since 1956, return with 12 swimmers who scored points in last year’s Big Ten Championships and six All-Americans, anchored by sophomore Tim Phillips and senior Elliott Keefer.Looze said the team feels like it is prepared for this high level of competition because it has been working for this all season-long.“There’s not a whole lot physically left to do other than fine-tune and work on turns, starts, relay exchanges, and we’ve done that,” he said. “Every ‘t’ we could cross or ‘i’ we could dot, we’ve done that. Our preparation has been solid.”
(02/21/11 4:18am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>This meet was about the score. It was about Allysa Vavra and all of IU’s individual champions. It was about IU coach Ray Looze — who was awarded Big Ten Swimming Coach of the Year — hurrying over to junior Courey Schaefer and lifting her off the ground in excitement after a preliminary race.The IU women’s swimming and diving team left the rest of the Big Ten in its wake this week, claiming its third straight title and winning by a 243-point margin (821-578) against runner-up Minnesota. “The past two years I’ve been on this team, we’ve won Big Tens both times,” junior Brittany Strumbel said. “My freshman year, I thought we were the best team in the country. I thought we were awesome, and each year we just keep winning by more points, and I don’t know how we do it because... when we come here, it just seems to all come together for us.”Strumbel started the Hoosiers off with a Big Ten record-breaking first leg of the victorious 800-yard freestyle relay Wednesday. The team was tied for the lead going into the finals Thursday, and after taking a 98-94 lead after the first event Thursday, it never looked back. “I think they’re respectful of how hard it is to win one of these,” Looze said. “There were points in the year where I don’t think anybody thought this was going to be possible, especially from the outside looking in.”Vavra was nearly unstoppable, winning both the 200 and 400-yard individual medley competitions and coming in third in the 200-yard breaststroke. Senior Ashley Jones had three top-five finishes, two of which were behind Vavra.IU diving once again dove with great success. Freshman Laura Ryan finished third in the 3-meter diving and first in the platform competition, and junior Gabby Agostino came in third in platform.Not only did the Hoosiers have the most depth, they might have had the most energy of any team in attendance. The IU bench was constantly filled with jumps, screams and enthusiastic and occasionally costumed athletes and coaches. Even IU Athletic Director Fred Glass got caught up in the moment, jumping into the pool to celebrate with the team after they clinched the title.“I’m a fifth-year senior, and we’ve just learned over the years that the more ridiculous we are, the faster we swim,” Jones said.Minnesota boasted both the Swimmer of the Big Ten Championships in senior Jillian Tyler and the Diver of the Big Ten Championships in junior Kelci Bryant. On Friday, Tyler became the 12th swimmer in the Big Ten to win an event four years in a row when she won the 100-yard breaststroke. Despite these impressive showings, the Hoosiers proved that depth is perhaps the most important trait a team can have in a championship meet.“This week is not about the individual,” Vavra said. “It’s all about the team, and to win a third Big Ten title, it doesn’t just take one person, it takes everyone on the team to do the same thing.”
(02/18/11 4:56am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Fifth-year senior Ashley Jones and the Hoosiers know what it’s like to be in an early hole at the Big Ten Championships.“We kind of went in with no expectations,” Jones said. “When I was a freshman — and we won that year — after the first day, we were behind by 30 points, so we were expecting, at worst, we’d be back 30 to 50 points.”This year, however, the situation is reversed from Jones’ freshman campaign.The Hoosiers have a 279-236 lead over second-place Minnesota — and the rest of the field — following the first two days of competition. Junior Allysa Vavra and Jones finished first and second, respectively, in the 200-yard IM. It’s an event they have swum together many times this season, but never with such success and on this grand of a stage. A fourth-place finish in the 200-yard relay led off a successful night for IU. Juniors Brittany Strumbel and Nikki White finished second and third, respectively, in the 500-yard freestyle behind Minnesota junior Ashley Steenvoorden.The Hoosiers look to maintain their lead during the next two days of competition at the Counsilman-Billingsley Aquatic Center when the teams return for prelims at 11 a.m. and finals at 6:30 p.m.— Alex McCarthy
(02/17/11 5:57am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The Hoosiers intend not only to defend their pool this week as they become hosts to the Big Ten Championship for the first time since 2005, but their 2009 and 2010 Big Ten titles as well. From freshman diver Laura Ryan to senior leaders like Ashley Jones, who earned three top-three finishes at last year’s Big Ten Championship, there is plenty of depth on this year’s squad.“We’re just looking to have a lot of fun now,” IU coach Ray Looze said. “All the preparation is behind us ... no predictions; we have to take it an event at a time, a heat at a time. We need to focus on ourselves and just stay loose.”Junior freestyler Margaux Farrell, who found the podium five times last year (with wins in the 200 free and the 400 free relay), will look to continue her success on the big stage. Junior diver Gabby Agostino will defend her 2010 victory in the platform diving competition. With six Big Ten teams ranked in the top 20 of the College Swimming Coaches’ Association of America poll, the No. 14 Hoosiers will face some of the nation’s elite. Minnesota enters ranked at No. 13, followed by IU at No. 14, with Michigan at No. 16, Wisconsin at No. 17, Ohio State at No. 19 and Purdue at No. 20. With the teams stacked so closely together, even the coach of the favored Minnesota squad said the title is up for grabs this week.“I think this conference is arguably one of the best and deepest conferences in the country,” Minnesota coach Terry Nieszner said. “To compete at this conference, every single person on the team has to step up, raise the bar a little bit higher and perform up to what they’re capable of doing and beyond.”
(02/17/11 4:50am)
How do the Hoosiers stack up against the rest of the Big Ten?
(02/11/11 4:55am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>It’s crunch time for the men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams. The women take part in the Big Ten Championship next week while 11 men will travel to the OSU Winter Open this weekend to finalize their Big Ten Championship roster.Eleven swimmers will compete for four spots to fill out the roster of 24.“Four guys are going to be happy, and the other guys are going to be disappointed in the short term,” IU coach Ray Looze said.While swimmers count as one roster spot, divers count as half a roster spot. Last week at the USA Diving Winter Nationals, the IU divers won the NCAA team combined competition as well as the NCAA women’s competition. Freshman Laura Ryan qualified for the Olympic trials in tower and springboard diving.The men placed fourth in the NCAA division. — Alex McCarthy
(02/07/11 2:25am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>When the IU men’s swim team woke up Saturday, it was down by 22 to arch-rival Purdue. When the team went to bed that same night, it had claimed a 166-134 victory.It was down 30-8 because the diving competition had already taken place Jan. 21. IU coach Ray Looze estimated that his team needed to win 10 of the 14 remaining events. It managed to win nine of them.“Ten would have been a for-sure win,” Looze said. “But we were able to get away with winning nine because of our depth.”In two events, the 200-yard butterfly and the 200-yard individual medley, Hoosiers took the top four spots. Sophomore Eric Ress led the team with three victories (200-yard IM, 100 and 200-yard backstroke) after being unable to swim against Purdue last year due to injury. The dual meet season ended for the men, but they will travel to Ohio State next weekend to compete in the OSU Winter Open. “Anytime you end your dual meet season on a winning note, that’s a good thing,” Looze said. “But we also know that we could have performed a lot better. We left a few races in the pool.”Through the first five days of the U.S. Diving Winter Nationals, the men were in third place, with the women running sixth. IU was in second place overall behind Texas. In the individual competition, sophomore Zac Nees was seventh while freshman Laura Ryan was fourth.
(02/04/11 3:52am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>In their final regular-season meet the IU women put on a show in Louisville, breaking five pool records en route to a convincing victory. On Saturday, the IU men will try to do the same thing in their regular-season finale in West Lafayette against rival Purdue. The men are also coming off a victory at Louisville, in which they also broke five pool records.“What I want to see is a similar effort to what we did last week against Louisville,” sophomore Eric Ress said. “Last week was probably the most cohesive, unified group of guys I’ve seen in a dual meet or even a championship team.”Since the diving team has already competed and only half of the divers went to Purdue — the other half went to Knoxville, Tenn. to face Tennessee and Georgia on Jan. 22 — the team will begin in a 30-8 hole. Purdue has also proven it can take down the Hoosiers, as it surprised the IU women with a victory Jan. 22.“In order to not get swept this year by them, our men are going to have to claw their way out of being behind right from the get-go,” IU coach Ray Looze said.Looze estimated that of the 14 remaining events, the Hoosiers need to win 10 of them.— Alex McCarthy
(01/31/11 5:49am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The IU swim teams have gotten into the habit of getting revenge this season. After a loss to Michigan earlier in the year, the women came back and won 157-127 against the Wolverines on Jan. 8. On Friday, the men were on a mission to bring Louisville down after a loss to the team last season. Both teams set five pool records each en route to convincing victories in a dual meet against Louisville and Virginia Tech on Friday in Louisville. The men claimed a 176-124 victory over No. 18 Louisville and a 189.5-110.5 win over Virginia Tech. The No. 14-ranked IU women, in their final meet before the Big Ten Championships, also won convincingly, besting No. 16 Louisville 181-119 and Virginia Tech 223-77. “We imposed our will on them,” coach Ray Looze said. “You hear that in basketball a lot, and we just took it right to them from the get-go and ended that competition pretty early. Not even halfway through, the meet just felt over.”Senior Illya Larin (500 and 1,000-yard freestyle) and sophomore Eric Ress (100 and 200-yard backstroke) both broke pool records in two races. The meet ended with the No. 13-ranked Hoosier men’s squad setting a pool record in the 200-yard freestyle relay with a winning time of 1:29.76.In their last meet before the Big Ten Championships — which are to be held at home Feb. 16-19 — the IU women also set records in Louisville. Junior Alyssa Vavra set two pool records with victories in the 1,000-yard freestyle and the 400-yard individual medley. Freshman Lindsay Vrooman’s pool record came in the 500-yard freestyle, while junior Brittany Strumbel earned hers in the 200-yard freestyle and sophomore Taylor Wohrley broke the 200-yard backstroke pool record. “They’re as ready as they’re going to be (for Big Ten’s),” Looze said. “We’re in a preparation sport, so your season of training dictates how you’re going to do at the end of the season, not these last few weeks.”
(01/28/11 4:54am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Nineteen days separate the IU women’s swimming team from the Big Ten Championships. However, they have just one meet to tie up all loose ends and finalize some little things. Both the IU men and women travel to Louisville to face Louisville and Virginia Tech on Saturday.Coach Ray Looze said he wants to see an improvement in the women’s energy from last week when the women were defeated at Purdue. “We went in there thinking it would be pretty easy for us to win, and we obviously didn’t,” senior Ashley Jones said. “It was a little bit of a surprise for us, so I think this week, we’re going to be a little more focused, be ready for anything and go out from the beginning ready to race.”The men are looking to bounce back after falling to Tennessee and Georgia last weekend. They are also looking to avenge a Jan. 29 loss in Louisville last year. For the Hoosiers, personnel is different this time around, with multiple players returning from redshirt status last year.“I think people are really hungry this year,” sophomore Jim Barbiere said. “People have been working really hard and going fast this week in practice, so I think that the biggest difference is that our confidence level is going to be much higher than it was last year.”While the swimmers focus on Louisville and Virginia Tech, the diving team will travel to Iowa to compete in the USA Winter Diving Nationals from Sunday through the rest of the week. High marks in the competition could mean a spot in the World University Games or in the World Championship. This year, the meet is not taking place during Spring Break, so not as many players can travel with the team. But this does not seem to faze the team.“It’s going to be a little bit different because we’re going to have a little bit of a smaller team,” sophomore Zac Nees said. “But I think all the guys who are going are just going to rally together, and it’s going to be like having the whole team there.”
(01/24/11 4:41am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>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
(01/21/11 5:07am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>With a win against Michigan in their rear view mirrors, the IU men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams look to continue rolling Saturday. The men travel to Knoxville, Tenn., to take on Tennessee and Georgia, while the women head to West Lafayette to swim against Purdue.Though IU and Purdue are rivals on the football field and basketball court, coach Ray Looze said he tries to keep emotions consistent from meet to meet.“We don’t put any more emphasis on any one program than another,” Looze said. “We don’t really have a Purdue rivalry. We have a ‘we want to beat everybody’ rivalry.”The men will face Tennessee and Georgia, who are ranked No. 10 and No. 11, respectively. Now that most teams have begun to rest up for the upcoming NCAA championships, freshman Cody Miller said all swimmers react differently to the resting period of training.“Some guys will be swimming faster, quicker into their taper, and other guys take a little bit longer in their taper,” Miller said.Since the men’s meet against Purdue takes place during Diving Winter Nationals, a large amount of the men’s team will travel to Purdue with the women competing early. The points will be added to the swimmers’ scores when the men swim against Purdue on Feb. 6. Sophomore Mick Dell’Orco said he believes that the change will not adversely affect the divers.“It’s just a matter of what we need personally to succeed as a team at Winter Nationals,” Dell’Orco said. “We’re all on the same page on that one.”
(01/12/11 3:25am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>After swimming a 200-yard butterfly time trial at the U.S. Short Course Nationals in Columbus, Ohio, sophomore Jim Barbiere approached coach Ray Looze. During the race, Looze had been yelling at Barbiere every time his head came out of the water to breathe. Looze was trying to keep Barbiere motivated while he tried to pass the swimmer ahead of him. After the race, Barbiere came to thank his coach.“If none of the coaches are really paying attention to you, you have an idea that you’re not doing well,” Barbiere said. “But if the team’s up and everybody has their hands in the air or they’re jumping up and down, that’s usually when you have an idea that you’re having a good race.”The coaches often flash signals to the swimmers whenever they can be seen. For example, when Looze or another staff member puts both arms in the air, that means the swimmer is doing well. Another indication of a successful race is when a coach is jumping while holding his or her hands high into the air. When Looze moves his arms up and down — resembling a child learning how to dribble a basketball — it means the swimmer should start using his or her legs more. Cheering at a swim meet is different from cheering at most other sports because during a large portion of the race, the athletes are underwater and unable to see or hear much. Cheering is often timed to get louder for the second when a swimmer brings his or her head above water to breathe. Even though the cheering only amplifies for a brief second, there is never a shortage of excitement or energy on the sidelines during a race.“I tend to be kind of loud, and I usually try to time my scream to when their heads surface or when they breathe, so they know that we’re really behind them,” Looze said. “We like to be zany and loud and loosey-goosey, and that’s the kind of people I like to recruit on a team.”Similar to a baseball team, most squads have slightly different signals that they give their swimmers, Looze said. However, unlike baseball, these signals are not kept secret since there is no need to worry about what the other team is doing; each swimmer can only control how well he swims.“There are some coaches who are really enthusiastic and walk up and down the pool deck, or whistle, or even do crazy loud things,” freshman Lindsay Vrooman said. “But I think most of the time, it’s just usually the same thing for most teams.”Looze has noticed that each swimmer is different in how he or she is affected by coaches’ movements outside the pool. Some, like Barbiere, swim faster by seeing coaches jumping around next to the pool, while others, like Looze himself when he used to swim, don’t care or even notice what goes on outside the pool. In general, Looze said he wants his swimmers to swim their own races.“I don’t want to contribute positively or negatively at a race,” Looze said. “I really want them to step up there and do it independently. There are a lot of coach-to-swimmer relationships that get dependent, and we’ve got six great swim coaches on this staff that are fantastic, and I think if there’s no dependency on any one individual, they can learn more easily from everybody.”
(01/10/11 5:57am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Moments after the Michigan women’s swim team handed IU a loss on Oct. 30, 2010, junior Allysa Vavra made a bold prediction.“We are not going to lose to them again,” Vavra said. “I guarantee that. We will not ever do this again.”She was right.Vavra, who won the 200-yard individual medley and the 200-yard breaststroke, led the IU women in a 157-127 win against Michigan on Saturday at Counsilman-Billingsley Aquatic Center. The IU men’s team also won 163-137. Although the victory delivered on a guarantee for the IU women, it was historic for the men. The last time the Hoosiers’ men squad beat the 8th-ranked Wolverines was in the 1998-99 season. In addition to snapping the 11-year skid against Michigan, IU was also the first Big Ten team to knock off Michigan in conference play since 2007.“I think both teams were very, very confident coming into this meet,” IU head coach Ray Looze said. “But the women just knew that they were going to win, whereas the men were determined to win.”Junior Margaux Farrell joined Vavra with victories in the 100-yard freestyle and 200-yard freestyle. On the men’s side, senior Titus Knight took home individual victories in the 100-yard freestyle and the 200-yard freestyle and a relay victory in the 400-yard freestyle.Looze said he was impressed with the way the teams won with honor and “kept it in perspective.” He said the squad maintained its composure, knowing that the most important victory is not in early January, but in late February at the Big Ten Championships.
(01/07/11 4:44am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The University of Michigan’s rivalry in the pool against the Hoosiers this year has stayed competitive. At 11 a.m. Saturday in Counsilman-Billingsley Aquatic Center, the rivalry will be back on display.With tight finishes for both the Hoosier men (a 150-150 tie) and women (a 188-182 loss) against the Wolverines in October and November, the teams have made it clear that patrons get a show every time these two teams swim against each other. The two programs rank in the top 15 in the nation according to TRY/College Swim Coaches Association of America Dual Meet Poll. Both IU men and women are ranked 14th, while the Wolverines are eighth and 15th, respectively.The IU women’s team will focus on relays and starting the meet off strong. A strong second day wasn’t enough to overcome a less than stellar first day for the women the last time the Hoosiers met the Wolverines. The men’s team has made a couple of lineup changes and looks to utilize depth, which has improved since November.“Since we swam against them earlier in the year, it’s going to be a great benchmark,” head coach Ray Looze said.Since Dec. 27, the swimmers and divers have gone through rigorous training. Although they may be tired from the past couple of weeks, the teams always look forward to facing the rival Wolverines. After the tie in November, senior Titus Knight described the rivalry as “sort of a deep hatred,” and Looze described the rivalry as “fierce” throughout the last couple of years.Michigan will battle to keep its success against IU going, while the Hoosiers look to make a statement against another Big Ten contender.
(12/08/10 5:22am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>As sophomore Daniel Kanorr reaches for the wall at the end of his race, he hears a rumble from above the water. He surfaces and realizes that the rumble is his teammates chanting.CONDOR! CONDOR! CONDOR!As has become his custom, Kanorr flaps his arms in triumph after a good race.Soon after his arrival, both coaches and players easily noticed that Kanorr, who stands at 6 feet 6 inches, has incredibly long arms. Whenever he would raise his arms, teammates noticed his stunning resemblance to a condor, which has a great wingspan. Add in the fact that his last name also sounds a bit similar to “condor,” and the nickname fits perfectly.“You can sometimes see it in him,” senior Bryan Chovanec said. “That’s just who he is. It’s kind of weird that way, and I think the nickname kind of picks the person.”Nicknames have picked many other members of the team as well, such as senior Ante Zoricic, who has gone by “Zorro” for years. In fact, he became known as Zorro far before he set foot in Bloomington or in the United States. His first swim coach in Croatia was the first to bestow the nickname upon him.“That was kind of funny for a couple of months,” Zoricic said. “But then they continued calling me Zorro. Now even my parents call me Zorro.“The various nicknames on the team range from junior John Schnittker’s moniker of Doodle (like a snickerdoodle cookie) to freshman James Wells’ nickname of Landry (he is the spitting image of Landry Clarke of NBC’s “Friday Night Lights”) to sophomore Jim Barbiere’s name of Dandy (he looks like a mix of Dale Earnhardt and Randy Johnson).The swimmers all seem to enjoy the business of giving and receiving nicknames. Zoricic actually prefers to be called Zorro, partially because a large number of people mispronounce his first name. Kanorr also gladly accepts his moniker. He said it has created a much more fun atmosphere than an ordinary and dull swim practice.“People think that this is boring, but think about doing it with people you don’t know,” Chovanec said. “It would be really boring. As teammates, we need each other to get through the day.”The guys in the pool aren’t the only ones who enjoy the nicknames. The coaches said they love calling the swimmers by their nicknames and even coming up with them. IU coach Ray Looze said he thinks the nickname game is one of the best aspects of the team. “It’s the way they bond, and it’s a way they bring themselves closer together,” Looze said. “It’s a sign of friendship. I think when you really like somebody, you have a nickname for them.”The nicknames are a large part of the team’s great sense of humor, which Looze said he values greatly. “I think whenever you have humor in anything, it helps bring people together,” Looze said. “Laughing is such a universal thing of successful organizations.”
(12/06/10 5:26am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The pool at Ohio State University was filled with great swimmers from Thursday to Saturday at the AT&T U.S. Short Course Nationals. Many of the talented athletes wore the distinctive white swim caps of IU, and they did not disappoint.Junior Eric Ress had another good showing, finishing fifth in the 100-yard backstroke and posting the third-best time in school history in the 200-yard backstroke, finishing fifth. Numerous women had top-five finishes, from junior Nikki White in the 500-yard freestyle to junior Alyssa Vavra in the 400-yard individual medley. Five Hoosier relay teams posted top-five finishes, which perhaps is an example of how far the team has come since struggling with relays early on.“I was so pleased with the morale and the spirit,” IU coach Ray Looze said. “We had some people step up who had never done that before, so we’re starting to come together.”As many other teams competed in the event, the men’s squad had a chance to scout out some future opponents. However, not as many women’s teams from the Big Ten were represented at the meet.“It was a really good dry run for Big Tens, and on the men’s side, we got to take a really good look at Michigan and Ohio State,” Looze said. “It kind of tells us what we need to develop between now and Big Tens on the men’s side.”Looze and the rest of the team are pleased at the progress shown during the weekend.“I don’t know if we’re a championship team yet for women or men,” Looze said. “But you can see one building.”Remaining Hoosiers hold floor at Hoosierland Open With the majority of the IU team was participating in U.S. Short Course Nationals in Columbus, Ohio, those who stayed in Bloomington approached the Hoosierland Open as a tune-up. “I felt like this was almost a perfect meet for us because we had a lot of young divers, and it was an opportunity for them to just kind of get in and rehearse the things they want to do for Big Tens, Winter Nationals and the NCAAs, so it was good for us,” IU diving coach Jeff Huber said. In an event that multiple people described as basically an intersquad meet, there was much to gain. “We’ve had a lot of season bests, a few lifetime bests, and I would say this is a breakthrough meet for a lot of the athletes that are here racing,” said Donny Brush, assistant coach for coordination of training and student-athlete development.Freshman Michael Mohler and sophomore Afton Robertson both performed especially well. Robertson cut 10 seconds off her 400-yard individual medley time, while Mohler won the men’s event and placed well in other races.After the end of the semester, the teams begin preparation for the USA Winter Nationals in Iowa City, Iowa. The team considers the Winter Nationals, which begin Jan. 30, the most important meet of the year thus far.
(12/03/10 5:26am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The annual Hoosierland Open, which usually takes place during the weekend before Thanksgiving, will lose a bit of its luster this year, as about 80 percent of the swim team will be participating in USA Short Course Nationals in Columbus, Ohio.Even though only about 10 to 12 swimmers will be present, those swimmers will use the open as an opportunity to work on a number of techniques and methods that should help them as the season continues.“You see where you are right now, and you take the race strategy you did and if it worked,” sophomore Afton Robertson said. “Then you continue with that, and if it didn’t work, then you can go back to the drawing board.” The entire diving team remains in Bloomington, and the divers plan to put on a show for any spectators. With junior Gabby Agostino, who has dominated dual meets and has won Big Ten Diver of the Week twice already in the young season, and sophomore Zac Nees, who is attempting a dive that diving coach Jeff Huber said only four or five guys in the country can do, this weekend’s meet could make for another impressive showing. This weekend, unlike most, the swimmers are competing more against themselves than against an opponent. A phrase that Huber says often to describe this meet is “dress rehearsal.”“It’s going to be really different because we don’t have a lot of competitors at this meet,” Huber said. “So what we’re going to try and do is use this as a dress rehearsal. The meet that we’re pointing toward next is (USA Diving) Winter Nationals.”Winter Nationals take place in late January, so the Hoosierland Open marks the beginning of the preparations for that important meet.
(12/02/10 5:24am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The annual Hoosierland Open usually draws many schools’ swimming and diving programs. This year, however, swimmers will have their minds on something else: the USA Swimming Short Course Nationals in Columbus, Ohio.Roughly 800 swimmers are bound for Ohio State’s pool to take part in the event. These swimmers range from high school athletes to Olympic athletes such Ryan Lochte. The IU squad, however, is used to swimming against stiff competition.“I’ve already raced against really good swimmers like the people we have on our team alone plus the dual meets we’ve gone to,” junior Courey Schaefer said. “So that’s definitely preparing myself and everyone else for a really good meet.”Among the solid opponents is Virginia senior freestyler Matt McLean, one of the best in the country who swims for the Cavaliers squad that defeated the Hoosiers on Nov. 19 and 20. IU sophomore Jim Barbiere said he looks forward to facing off against McLean again.“You’re always looking to try to beat somebody who’s beat you before,” Barbiere said. “So this is going to be a good opportunity to see where I’m at. He’s one of the best freestylers in the country, so if I’m close to him, I know I’m going to be there at the end of the year.”The event usually takes place farther away from Bloomington in places such as Seattle or Atlanta, so the team is seizing the opportunity that comes with the event’s being so close this year.“It’s a great level of competition that is within driving distance of us,” coach Ray Looze said. “So we really couldn’t pass it up.”About 40 members of the team have shipped off to Columbus for the next few days. Members who didn’t make the trip will look to hold the fort at this weekend’s Hoosierland Open along with the diving team.