After Olympic, national and Big Ten season success, IU swimming and diving is looking to keep its undefeated dual meet momentum going into the Big Ten Championships.
The No. 4 Hoosiers will travel to Ohio State this week for conference finale. The competition will run Wednesday night through Saturday and pit IU against the rest of the conference, which includes three other ranked teams in No. 9 Michigan, No. 16 Minnesota and No. 17 Ohio State.
IU enters the meet with an undefeated mark of 11-0 in the dual meet season and seems to be the favorite in Columbus, Ohio. Head swim coach Ray Looze said the team is looking to focus on themselves.
“We’re really just going to simplify things and just let everybody else do the scoreboard watching and stuff like that,” Looze said. “We’re going to do what Indiana does and that’s be competitive.”
For the Hoosier swimmers, junior Blake Pieroni and sophomores Vini Lanza and Ian Finnerty will be ones to watch. Pieroni has been a staple of the Hoosiers’ success all year, entering the meet with five wins in both the 100- and 200-yard freestyle events against the likes of Michigan, Texas, Florida, Tennessee and Kentucky.
Lanza and Finnerty have become major sparkplugs for the Hoosiers more recently. Finnerty has been key in the 100-yard breaststroke, posting wins against Louisville, Purdue and Michigan, while Lanza has dominated in the butterfly, sweeping both the 100- and 200-yard events against Louisville and Michigan.
“There’s a saying, ‘We’re in the taper process now, it’s not possible to blow a taper, you blow a season,’” Looze said. “We’ve worked really hard and our preparation has been outstanding. We just need to go into the meet with that clearly in our heads.”
If Finnerty, Lanza and Pieroni perform as well as they are capable in the sprint events, IU will likely find itself in position to win a Big Ten title.
However, IU’s Big Ten title quest is incomplete without some help from the divers. The Hoosier divers have been arguably the country’s best team top to bottom this season. With a squad made up of senior Josh Arndt, juniors Cody Coldren and Michael Hixon, and sophomore James Connor, the divers seem poised for something special.
“We’re all where we need to be right now and we’re happy it’s here,” Hixon said. “Time to go.”
Connor and Hixon will be the likely candidates to compete for Big Ten Championships out of the foursome. Hixon has been named Big Ten Diver of the week three times this season and has swept the 1-meter and 3-meter springboard events three times.
“Right now it’s just stay healthy and get your minds ready,” Hixon said. “You know we’ve already done the work so we’re ready to go.”
Connor, along with Purdue standout sophomore Steele Johnson, will push Hixon for first place nods. After finishing 15th at the Rio Olympics in the 10-meter platform dive, the Australian could be a major player on the platform this week. Connor swept the 1- and 3-meter dives against Cincinnati and won the 3-meter against Tennessee, Kentucky, Florida and Texas, so look for him to hang around the top of the leaderboard no matter the event.
“At the Big Ten Championships it’s all about your depth,” Looze said. “So I would like to see four divers do a great job and 22 swimmers. And if everyone does their job then we’ll take whatever that result is.”
Competition will begin 6 p.m. Wednesday at the McCorkle Aquatic Pavilion in Columbus, Ohio.
