Meet of the Week Preview: Northwestern at Indiana

By Jason Marsteller

PHOENIX, Arizona, October 22. THREE more meets are featured this week in the SwimmingWorldMagazine.com Meet of the Week series. One of them is the Big Ten clash between Northwestern and Indiana

Here is a quick preview of the match-up:

Date and Time: Friday, October 24 at 3 p.m.
Location: Bloomington, Indiana
Facility: Counsilman-Billingsley Aquatics Center

Northwestern's Last Time Out:
This will be the season-opener for Northwestern.

Looking forward with Northwestern's head men's coach Bob Groseth:
IU is our first meet of the year and we are very much an untested team.

It is always exciting as a graduate of Indiana University to return to the "house that Doc built". Indiana has a very strong team and always swims fast at home. This is a meet that our guys really look forward to, and we generally have some breakthrough swims in the meet. We have been in school barely a month, so I have no idea what to expect. The team has been training hard, and they are looking forward to getting a break from the training grind and racing.

We have a small team this year (14 swimmers and 2 divers) so I expect Indiana's depth and their traditional strength in diving to be the biggest factors to overcome. That being said, our guys are ready to go fast and see what happens. See you Friday. Go Cats!

Looking forward with Northwestern's head women's coach Jimmy Tierney:
Indiana is again one of the top contenders for the Big Ten crown this year, and it's always fun to race them. They already have a few meets under their belt while we are still pretty early in our training, but we are looking for our team to step up and compete well. This will be a great opener for us, and will give our large freshman class a good taste of Big Ten competition.

We have a different team dynamic this year than in the past because we have a much larger team with a lot of depth. There have even been differences in how we conduct workouts, but hopefully it will result in more competition each day and will motivate everyone to raise their level of performance. We certainly have more options in putting together lineups for dual meets but my hope is that we can develop a much deeper team for Big Tens as a result.

Indiana's Last Time Out:
Indiana claimed a pair of dual meet triumphs over Kentucky on Oct. 18. The men downed the Wildcats, 189-108, while the women downed UK, 164-121.

Aaron Opell led the way for IU with three wins. He topped the 100 breast (57.18), 200 breast (2:04.53) and 200 IM (1:52.78). Meanwhile, Landon Marzullo swept diving with wins in the one-meter (372.40) and three-meter (421.30).

Kate Zubkova and Nikki White did some major damage for the Hoosier women.

Zubkova led the 200 medley relay of Zubkova, Sarah Stockwell, Donna Smailis and Margaux Farrell to a victory in 1:42.08. She also won the 100 back (54.74), 200 back (1:59.10) and 200 IM (2:05.20).

White won the 200 free (1:49.96) and 500 free (4:53.12) and helped the 400 free relay of Farrell, Smailis, White and Brittany Strumbel to a win in 3:28.97.

Looking forward with Indiana's head coach Ray Looze:
Northwestern has been one of the stronger teams in the Big Ten Conference the last several years. We expect a very close contest and are excited for the opportunity to officially begin our conference dual meet season.

MOTW, Northwestern at Indiana

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