The Indiana men’s and women’s dive teams begin its 2023-24 season this week, hosting the University of Kentucky in the Counsilman-Billingsley Aquatic Center on Wednesday.
Off the back of a 2022-23 campaign resulting in a men’s Big Ten Conference Championship and a second place finish in the conference for the women, swimming head coach Ray Looze returns for his 17th season with the Hoosiers.
Looze said the team had a great offseason over the summer, but his focus remains on the future.
While it is their first competitive fixture of the 2023-24 season, the swimmers and divers got a feel for competition Sept. 29 during the annual Cream and Crimson intersquad scrimmage.
Looze identified juniors Jassen Yep and Anna Freed as the two MVP swimmers from the exhibition. Yep’s time in the 200 yard breaststroke (1:56.96) was under the NCAA B cut time (1:57.95). Notably, Yep also outlasted former IU swimmer and Olympian Cody Miller, who returned to participate in the scrimmage, in the 100 yard breaststroke by less than three tenths of a second (54.27).
Freed took home the victory in the 200 yard backstroke (2:00.24) and finished second in the 200 yard intermediate medley (2:05.62).
The team also got a healthy boost of youth this offseason, with 22 freshmen joining the team. Looze said two freshman caught his eye during the scrimmage: Dylan Smiley for the men and Olivia Roumph for the women.
Smiley finished second in the 200 yard intermediate medley (1:50.75) and the 100 yard butterfly (47.98), with a third place finish in the 200 yard butterfly (1:50.55).
Roumph posted a second place finish in the 100 yard breaststroke (1:04.29) and a fourth place finish in the 300 yard breaststroke.
While there were bright spots during the Cream and Crimson exhibition, Looze knows that he can’t be overly ecstatic about the dress rehearsal.
“There was some good, there was some bad, and there was some ugly,” Looze said Sept. 29. “We have to get the ugly taken care of. We have work to do. We got standards, and the standards are the standards. And we did not meet those in a lot of ways.”
Whether Looze’s standards are met this season remains to be seen. But the pieces are seemingly in place for the Hoosiers to challenge for an eleventh Big Ten title under Looze.
