Skip to Content, Navigation, or Footer.
Support the IDS in College Media Madness! Donate here March 24 - April 8.
Friday, March 29
The Indiana Daily Student

sports

Swimming, diving to have 1st match of year

The IU men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams will compete against the Penn State Nittany Lions and Virginia Cavaliers at their first home meet of the 2012-13 season Friday and Saturday at the Councilman-Billingsley Aquatic Center.

Admission for the event is free. Spectators are encouraged to park in the Sunrise Lane lot across the street from the CBAC with the entrance off 10th Street.

“I’m very excited to compete at home,” sophomore Steve Schmuhl said. “It’s always fun swimming in front of a home crowd and being able to show our friends and families firsthand what we work so hard for.”

The teams will go head-to-head in the 200 freestyle relay, 200 individual medley, 500 freestyle, 100 breaststroke, 200 backstroke, 100 freestyle, 200 butterfly and 400 medley relay to kick off the two-day tri-meet at 5 p.m. Friday. The divers are scheduled to compete in the women’s 1-meter springboard and the men’s 3-meter springboard.

At 11 a.m. Saturday, the teams will compete in the 200 medley relay, 1,000 freestyle, 50 freestyle, 100 backstroke, 200 breaststroke, 100 butterfly, 200 freestyle, 400 individual medley, 400 freestyle relay, women’s 3-meter diving and men’s 1-meter diving.

According to the most recent College Swimming Coaches Association of America poll, the Hoosier women are ranked 14th.

“Our breastrokers, backstrokers and flyers are going to help us out a lot this weekend,” junior Lindsay Vrooman said. “I know that we’re going to need our freestylers to step up. UVA has some of the best freestylers in the country, so I know this meet is going to be a huge challenge for me along with some of the other girls.”

Because the women’s team has changed up some of their relays, it will be interesting to see how they compare to No. 10 Virginia and Penn State, Vrooman said.

Freshman and holder of two NCAA provisional times Brooklyn Snodgrass has remained undefeated in the 100 and 200 backstroke throughout the season. After her performance at the Texas/Michigan tri-meet, Snodgrass was named Big Ten Swimmer and Freshman of the Week on Oct. 30.

In the 100 breaststroke, senior Ashley Specht has posted an NCAA B cut and freshman Madeline Maher has hit a provisional mark in the 200 breaststroke.

For the men’s team, Schmuhl has contributed to Indiana’s depth with two NCAA provisional cuts in the 200 backstroke and 200 butterfly, along with junior Cody Miller, who started the season off with NCAA B cuts in the 100 and 200 breaststroke, and junior James Wells, who posted a provisional time in the 100 backstroke.

“The men’s team has really stepped up our game since the last duel meet with Michigan and Texas,” Schmuhl said, “It was a shock in the system for some of our swimmers, and it really gave us a good perspective on what we need to do in order to reach our goals for the end of the season.”

With their losses coming to No. 1 Michigan and No. 4 Texas, the No. 7 Hoosier men are more battle hardened and look to come back with a vengeance, IU Coach Ray Looze said.

“Both the staff and team are constantly looking to get better every day,” Looze said. “That is why we swim the most difficult dual meet schedule in the nation.”

The men’s team will be up against another fierce competitor this weekend as they compete against No. 8 Virginia and No. 24 Penn State.

In the middle distances, senior Jim Barbiere has performed for IU with top times in the 100 freestyle, 200 freestyle and 500 freestyle.

The Hoosier divers are expecting to come out of this weekend victorious against Virginia and Penn State.

“I really think that everyone on the team has put themselves in a good position to dive well this weekend,” senior Mick Dell’Orco said. “I’d definitely expect (junior) Darian Schmidt to do well this weekend. He has been lights out in practice, and I also wouldn’t be surprised to see (senior) Casey Johnson be a top finisher for us.”

Schmidt, an All-American diver, has led the Hoosiers on the 1-meter and 3-meter springboard.

After this weekend, the IU swimming and diving team will wrap up the semester at the USA Swimming Winter Nationals from Nov. 29 to Dec. 1 and the OSU Invitational from Nov. 30 to Dec.3.

Get stories like this in your inbox
Subscribe