The men and women’s swimming and diving teams will be very busy this weekend, as they will be competing in a total of three matches between the two teams.
The women will be hosting a dual meet against Louisville on Friday, Jan. 30 at 5 p.m. and half of the men’s team will be traveling to Evansville that same day to compete at 5 p.m. The other half of the men’s team will be traveling to Columbus, Ohio, on Saturday to compete at 1 p.m. in a three-way meet with Louisville and Ohio State.
“We have a pretty big men’s team, so nine or 10 guys are staying back and racing Evansville,” IU Coach Ray Looze said. “This is our last competition before we choose who is going to the Big Ten Championships, and we felt it was important to have the entire team race so that we can see where they’re at and pick the best 24 people.”
All three teams in the men’s three-way competition are ranked in the top 12. No. 4 Louisville comes into Saturday as the highest-ranked team followed by No. 9 Indiana and No. 12 Ohio State. This meet will be a good chance for the Hoosiers and Buckeyes to compete against each other before the Big Ten Championships start.
“The way we’re evaluated in the Big Ten is how you do at the Big Ten Conference Championships,” Looze said. “That’s the order of finish in the Big Ten, it’s not the dual meets.”
IU senior Steve Schmuhl walked away from the Big Ten Championships with three third-place finishes and one fourth-place finish last year. Saturday’s meet will be Schmuhl’s first time swimming in two weeks. His main events are the 200 butterfly, 200 individual medley, 400 individual medley and 200 backstroke.
“I don’t think there is like too much pressure for a tri-meet,” Schmuhl said. “It’s about the same as a dual meet. There are just more people. Most competitive for the boys will probably be Louisville.”
Both Louisville and Ohio State are teams Looze said he considers to be strong rivals even though Louisville is not an inner-conference opponent.
“It’s going to be really high intensity,” Looze said. “Our guys are fired up.”
