Dueling for victories

It was a long, strenuous weekend for the IU men's swimming and diving team. After a sweep at the hands of Texas the weekend prior, the Hoosiers knew the next couple of meets could help separate them from the pack. The No. 13 ranked Hoosiers first met the No. 14 ranked Northwestern Wildcats Friday in the team's first dual meet against a conference opponent. Both teams fought a hard battle and the meet proved as close as the two teams' rankings would suggest. \nThe Hoosiers won eight of the 16 events in the dual meet, and the experienced swimmers and divers were the deciding factor in the meet. \n"They threw most of their best swimmers at us early," said IU coach Ray Looze. "Our team is really built for the conference meet and our depth won it. We really swam well today." \nIn the end, depth saved IU from a 3-2 record. Instead, the Hoosiers intensified their game and came out with their fourth dual meet win of the young season.\nJunior Sergiy Fesenko recorded three event title wins in the 500-yard freestyle, 200-yard butterfly and the 1,000-yard freestyle, giving IU a needed cushion before the remaining events commenced. \nAfter the Hoosiers won the much-needed points in the 200-yard freestyle medley, senior Marc Carlton continued his consistent play so far this season with two more event titles, claiming the 3-meter diving and platform diving events, respectively.\n"I believe we just went against the best dual-meet squad in the country in Northwestern," Looze said. \nThe Hoosiers defeated the Wildcats by a score of 179-129, and used the win's momentum going into Saturday's dual meet against No.15 University of Kentucky and unranked Southwest Missouri State University.\nComing into Saturday's dual meet against Kentucky and SMS, the Hoosiers were in high spirits off recent victories against two ranked teams in Northwestern and Texas A&M. But Saturday turned out to be more disappointing than gratifying.\nCarlton placed first in the 3-meter diving and second in the 1-meter diving events, but Kentucky's Ben Starchuk earned similar finishes in the same events. Some Hoosier divers were out of sync, opening the door for a Kentucky victory. Without the anchor of the consistent divers, the Hoosiers needed strong finishes from their swimmers.\n"We do not have any excuses because we can dive better and we will dive better," said diving coach Jeff Huber. "The meets are good for us to compare how well we are doing against other divers."\nIU never trailed SMS, as they handily took care of business against the Bears, but it was much harder to gain an advantage against the talented Wildcats of Kentucky. The Hoosiers only grabbed two event titles, one by Friday's star, Fesenko, and the other by Carlton. The No. 15 ranked Wildcats accounted for 14 event titles against IU. \n"We did not swim well today," Looze said. "We can do much better. We just needed to be better in the second meet."\nEven though the Hoosiers fell to Kentucky 148-95, they still prevailed over SMS 185-58, bringing their dual meet record to 5-2, and 1-0 in Big Ten play. The next competition for the IU team will Nov. 19-21 when the Hoosiers compete in the Indiana Invitational in Bloomington.\n-- Contact staff writer Evan Harris at evharris@indiana.edu.