IU welcomes Purdue for Senior Day

The No. 11 IU men's swimming and diving team will honor eight seniors Saturday when it plays host to archrival No. 14 Purdue in its last tune-up before the Big Ten Championships. Those being honored include Hank Baldwin, Thomas Clavier, Ryan Fagan, Sergiy Fesenko, Mike Jones, Brian Mariano, Jesse Rappaport and Kevin Swander. \n"It's going to be a little sad, knowing it's going to be my last college dual meet," Clavier said. "But you know, life goes on and there's other stuff I'd like to get into. I don't regret anything, but the thing I will miss the most is just the guys and hanging out with them." \nThe meet is the next opportunity for IU to separate itself from Purdue in the AT&T Crimson and Gold Cup, which the Hoosiers currently lead 5-3. \n"It would be nice to beat Purdue," Jones said. "We came off a loss last week against Michigan, so it would be nice to win. Purdue is always a good meet at the end of the season to get out there and have good times before Big Tens."\nThe current crop of seniors were freshmen when coach Ray Looze took over for the Hoosiers. Most of them are now captains on a team pushing for a Big Ten Championship run. \nThe chance for a special run is still a few weeks away, and Looze said he hopes it won't distract his team in Saturday's meet.\n"We had a meeting today (Wednesday)," Looze said. "We warned the team that this is a good team and not one to overlook. It's the worst thing to play a team that is ranked just a little bit lower then you. They got everything to gain and you have everything to lose."\nThe Hoosiers are looking to improve in some of the areas in which they struggled during the tough loss to Michigan. A few major areas IU will work on are too many second place finishes and not enough wins in events.\n"The reason we were getting second was because we weren't swimming our races," Looze said. "We were swimming someone else's. We tried to focus on how to split a great race and how to swim our own race."\nThe Hoosiers will also look to fine tune their relay races and decide which swimmers they will use in the Big Ten Championships.\n"We need to pick our team," Looze said. "I need to find the best 21 swimmers and we're a pretty deep team so that's going to be a challenge. This is the last time to evaluate the swimmers."\nThe diving team has become a big lift for the Hoosiers recently, especially in the loss to Michigan, where a top-five sweep in the three-meter dive pushed IU into the lead with two events remaining. \nThe diving squad is led by a trio of seniors including Fagan, three-time defending Big Ten Diver of the Week. \n"What can I say, they're like sons to me," diving coach Dr. Jeff Huber said. "They're a great group. I loved every minute of working with these guys. They're what our program is all about. They're good students, good athletes and hard working."\nThe meet will begin at 10 a.m. at the Counsilman-Billingsley Aquatics Center at the SRSC, with the seniors being honored prior to the start of the meet.