Big Ten Weekly Preview: Penn State Faces Villanova; Michigan Faces MSU

KNOXVILLE, TN - December 5, 2013 - A member of the Villanova University swim team watches the Men's 50 Yard Freestyle during the USA Swimming AT&T Winter National Championships at the Allan Jones Aquatic Center in Knoxville, Tennessee

By Dan D’Addona.

The Big Ten regular season concludes with a handful of dual meets as teams prepare for the Big Ten Championships.

Here is a look at what is happening this week:

Penn State vs. Villanova

Shane Ryan leads the Nittany Lions against Villanova for a non-conference showdown with one of the top teams in the Big East.

Ryan has been named the Big Ten Swimmer of the Week following six of the seven meets he has swam in this season and eight times for his career. He now ranks in a three-way tie for most Big Ten weekly awards in conference history with 10, along with Michigan’s Peter Vanderkaay and Northwestern’s Matt Grevers. Michigan’s Dylan Bosch holds the record at 14.

On senior day, Ryan broke his own pool record in the 100 freestyle with a swim of 42.99. His other individual event wins included the 50 free in 19.76 seconds just four hundreths of a second shy of his own pool record set the previous.

Michigan at Michigan State

Coming off of its rivalry meet with Ohio State, the Michigan Wolverines face another rival when they travel to Michigan State on Saturday. The Spartans are coming off of a win over Oakland University and the Wolverines knocked off Ohio State. Should be an easy win for the top-10 ranked Wolverines, but closer than this rivalry meet has been in past years.

Weekly roundup

The rest of the Big Ten teams in action are tuning up for the conference meet.

On Friday, Iowa faces Northern Iowa and Western Illinois, Ohio State faces Wright State and Wisconsin faces Green Bay. On Friday and Saturday, Minnesota hosts the Minnesota Challenge.

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