By Jason Marsteller
PHOENIX, Arizona, October 29. ANOTHER meet featured this weekend in the SwimmingWorldMagazine.com Meet of the Week series is the Wisconsin at Arizona contest.
Here is a quick preview of the match-up:
Date and Time: Friday, October 31 at 2 p.m.
Location: Tucson, Arizona
Facility: Hillenbrand Aquatic Center
Wisconsin's Last Time Out:
Wisconsin's men's team dropped a contest to Iowa, 166-134, on Oct. 17. The women last competed Oct. 24-25 at the SMU Classic as the Badgers took fourth place at the event. Southern California won with 327 points, while North Carolina (301) and SMU (301) took the top three spots. Wisconsin defeated Alabama (232) and Arizona State (227).
Looking forward with Wisconsin's head coach Eric Hansen:
We always look forward to our annual dual with Arizona. It's obvious what we're up against with them being the defending national champions on both sides, but we're looking to be sharper every week and this week will be no exception.
Arizona's Last Time Out:
This meet is the season-opener for Arizona.
Looking forward with Arizona's head coach Frank Busch:
We graduated some tremendous athletes on the men's team. You don't graduate two individual national champions and expect some freshman to be able to come in and match that right away. There's just something special about this group. They won't have a lot of pressure as our women will have, but the All-Americans that we do have returning on the men's side are some of the best in the world.
When the first rankings come out this season, I'd be very surprised if Arizona wasn't listed at the top of the women's rankings. I think our girls expect that and would be disappointed if they weren't listed as the favorites. What does being ranked no. 1 mean? It basically means that we had success in the past, and we need to figure out how to have it again. We can't think that what we did last year will be good enough this year.
