No. 16 IU will race in the Dale England Cup this Saturday on Bloomington’s Lake Lemon. If the Hoosiers win the cup, it would be their third straight season claiming first place in the event.
IU is up three spots from last week’s national poll after an impressive weekend against then-No. 20 Minnesota and then-No. 11 Wisconsin.
Standing in the way of IU's search of the three-peat is Michigan State and the University of Notre Dame. Both teams are unranked but have received votes in the polls, Michigan State being the second team left out of the rankings.
The Spartans have history on their side as they have not lost to the Hoosiers since falling in a Big Ten double-dual in 2015. Most recently, MSU defeated IU in last season's double-dual, along with in-state rival Michigan. This is the Spartans' first time racing in the Dale England Cup since 2011.
Notre Dame should provide a better matchup for IU. The Fighting Irish will be racing in their seventh consecutive Dale England Cup. They won the event in 2016, beating the Hoosiers on a tiebreaker. Notre Dame also went back-to-back winning the event in 2013 and 2014. The good news for IU is it has beat Notre Dame the past two years, winning both races by 12 points.
The Hoosiers seem to have an edge over the field. They are the only ranked team, they’ve won races against multiple ranked teams this season and they’re coming off back-to-back Dale England Cups. IU Head Coach Steve Peterson said in order to win, the team willneed to do one simple thing: just keep doing what its doing.
The Dale England Cup is set to begin at 9 a.m. Saturday at Lake Lemon.
