IU laps No. 19 Fighting Irish

Senior Brooke Taflinger and sophomore Kristen Bradley led the No. 14 IU women's swimming and diving team to a victory against No. 19 Notre Dame Thursday.\nGoing into this meet, IU held a record of 1-0 in dual meet action. It earned the first win against Evansville in the first meet of the season. Coming off a tough weekend, the IU squad went into the meet feeling strong.\n"It's always nice to get a win under our belt, especially against a top 20 team like Notre Dame," said coach Dorsey Tierney.\nIU defeated the Irish by a score of 176-124. Many personal and school bests were set for the Hoosiers. Taflinger won in the 1000-yard Freestyle with a time of 10:02.08 -- a career best for her and the third best 1000 meter time in school history. In the 200-yard backstroke, freshman Leila Vaziri finished the race in second with a time of 2:04.84, a career best for her and eighth fastest time in school history.\nTierney stressed that Taflinger's efforts went above and beyond the "norm" for a swimmer.\n"Brooke again had a very nice meet. Anytime you are swimming the thousand at the beginning of the meet and the 400-IM at the end you have your work cut out for you," Tierney said. "She certainly did a fine job."\nSenior Sarah Fiden finished first in the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 4:57.78. Notre Dame has a solid freshman crew and Tierney thinks they will be a force to be reckoned with in the future.\n"With their freshman class they are going to be pretty tough these next couple of years," Tierney said.\nTafllinger said she was pleased with her team's performance.\n"We had some good swimmers and Notre Dame usually matches up pretty well with us," she said. "They are pretty equal depth wise with us, and it was nice to come out with a win."\nThe divers also fared well with freshmen Lindsay Weigle and Heather Chapman sweeping second and third place in the one meter and three meter dives.\nNext weekend the team will travel to Wisconsin and Northwestern for a pair of dual meets in the Big Ten. It will be a family affair as Tierney will face her brother, who is coach of Northwestern. \n-- Contact staff writer Chris Hopper at chopper@indiana.edu.