Hoosiers hyped for No.21 Purdue

Attention in Big Ten swimming and diving tends to focus more on the championship than on individual meets. This weekend is different, as IU takes on rival Purdue in a showdown between the No. 21 Boilermakers and the unranked Hoosiers. \n"With IU-Purdue, you throw out everything, and it is just a good battle," Coach Kris Kirchner said. "It's just a good sports battle. Every race will be close. It will be one of their best meets, and hopefully that's how we're going into it.\n"It's going to be our final dual meet before the conference meet, and we're going to go all out."\nThe meet marks the Hoosiers' first home action since Jan. 12. IU went 3-1 on a road trip that included double dual meets at Iowa and Kentucky. Last weekend the Hoosiers swept both the Wildcats and Cincinnati by scores of 129-113 and 178-58, respectively.\nIn that meet, freshman Richard Bryant won the 200-yard freestyle and took second in both the 500- and 1,000-yard freestyle events. Sophomore Claes Andersson won the 50- and 100-yard freestyle races, and junior David Schulze won the 200-yard individual medley and the 200-yard breaststroke. Schulze said he can see the team getting better and coming together. \n"I felt we made a lot of improvements in terms of our race strategies and starts and turns and overall just maintaining an energy through the whole meet," Schulze said.\nIU holds a 51-24 edge in the all-time standings against Purdue but fell to the Boilermakers last season in West Lafayette, 131-112. \n"They beat us last year, and I know how disappointed everyone was," Andersson said. "I think we'll have a good chance this year."\nPurdue (6-4, 3-3 Big Ten) comes off a 191-159 victory over No. 15 Wisconsin and a 246-106 defeat at the hands of No. 6 Minnesota last Saturday.\n"Against Purdue, we're going to try and step up another level," Bryant said. "We need to because Purdue has a very strong team this year with a lot of good distance guys. But I think we can do it. The closer we get to Big Tens, the closer we build as a team, which is very important."\nSaturday is also Senior Day. Lone senior and co-captain Heath Montgomery will be honored.\nOn the diving side of the competition, the Hoosiers will try to build off their performance at Kentucky. There, junior Adam Hazes and sophomore Marc Carlton took fourth and fifth place off the one-meter board, and sophomore Alex Burns took third off the three-meter board.\n"Alex Burns was close to, if not, the best performance he's had," Huber said. "He did a real nice job to get in there in third place in the three-meter."\nHuber said Purdue would provide a stiff contest. \n"We're looking forward to finishing up with some good competition," he said. "I think they've got a real good chance of going 1-2-3 off the high boards. But Purdue has got some good divers, so we'll have to dive well." \nThe competition starts at 4 p.m. in the Counsilman-Billingsley Aquatics Center.