In its first home action of the young season at the Counsilman Billingsley Aquatic Center, the IU swimming and diving teams racked up three victories Thursday afternoon against No. 13 / 18 Notre Dame and Cincinnati.
The No. 1-ranked IU men’s squad extended its dual meet win streak to 19 after picking up two wins Thursday. The Hoosiers beat No. 13 Notre Dame and Cincinnati by the same score, 146-95.
Senior diver Michael Hixon swept both the 1-meter and 3-meter diving events. Hixon’s performance in the 3-meter went down in IU history as his score of 483.10 was the sixth highest all-time score by a Hoosier.
“I thought it went well," Hixon said. "It was about as good as we could expect on 3-meter for a dual meet. In the 1-meter I didn’t come out very strong, but I thought I responded well and came on in the back half.”
Hixon had one of the best meets of his career statistically. However, he will only be diving in the 3-meter next weekend at the Early Bird Invitational at Purdue University.
Junior swimmer Vini Lanza also gave the Hoosiers some much-needed assistance as he won the 100m butterfly and placed second in the 200m freestyle, behind his teammate junior Mohamed Samy.
“Its always nice to swim at home," Lanza said. "All the parents and fans come watch, and we appreciate all the support we get here."
With the team being home for the first time this season, the echoes from IU supporters were heard throughout the aquatic center.
“I like it a lot because the stands are pretty close to the pool so you can feel the energy from the fans," Lanza said. “It’s really important for us.”
On the other side, the No. 9 IU women’s squad continued its early-season theme of splitting dual meets. While the Hoosiers beat down Cincinnati 190-53, Notre Dame eked out a narrow 123-120 victory.
Junior Lilly King won both of her individual events, the 200m IM and the 100m breaststroke, but still wasn’t satisfied with the overall team performance.
“I swam fine, I’m just not happy with how the team did, we’re losing a lot of close races and making a lot of sloppy errors,” King said. “I’m not too happy about it.”
Junior diver Jessica Parratto continued her strong start to the season as she swept both the 1-meter and 3-meter events with season-high scores of 309.5 and 398.7, respectively.
The IU women’s team currently sits at .500 with a 3-3 record this season. While they were a top-10 team going into Thursday, that ranking will likely drop.
King said she isn't happy with the way her teammates have been taking the close losses to start the season.
"I’m a little bit more upset than they are, which is not good,” King said. “They should not be happy about how they did today, and I will definitely share that with them.”
The bad taste left from this meet will stick with the Hoosiers until next weekend when they travel to West Lafayette, Indiana, for the Early Bird Invitational. The meet will last three days, which will be a change of pace for IU after Thursday's meet lasted only three hours.
