In its final meet before the winter break last Friday, No. 12 Indiana women’s swim and dive won its competition against the University of Cincinnati by a score of 163-121 at the Counsilman-Billingsley Aquatic Center.
Indiana started its day with a win in the 200-yard medley relay. The swimmers followed this up with individual victories from Mariah Denigan, Anna Freed and Emily Weiss in the 1,000-yard freestyle, 100-yard backstroke and 100-yard breaststroke, respectively.
Though the Hoosiers got the win against the Bearcats, head coach Ray Looze is looking for even more improvement, especially from his relay swimmers.
“We have been emphasizing the importance of our relays,” Looze said. “We want to be in a position to compete for Big Ten championships, and this was a move in the right direction.”
Even though Big Ten championships are a goal for the team, Looze has his sights set on leading his team members to nationals. The relay swimmers have work to do, but he believes that his team is only going to get better as the season progresses.
Looze said he was pleased Indiana had the opportunity to compete in an actual meet this week because the team would normally be focused on training between Thanksgiving and the spring season.
“We have never really done competition at this time in the last 10 or 12 years, so I was kind of happy to get this opportunity to race,”Looze said. “I was talking to Cincinnati's coach and I think we are going to do this again.”
In terms of standouts from the meet, Looze mentioned Ella Ristic but was proud of everyone’s performances. The sophomore freestyle specialist took home first place with a time of 2:02.75 in the 200-yard Individual Medley.
Indiana, which is now 5-1 after the win, won’t be back in action until it faces Michigan on Jan. 8, 2022 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Michigan finished its fall season 4-0 and took down the No. 20 University of Missouri on Nov. 5.
