The Northwestern men’s and women’s swimming teams enter the annual NU Invite this weekend with hopes of practicing for future meets.
The format of the invitational is championship style, meaning that it lasts three days, unlike the one-day dual meets that both NU teams have participated in thus far this season. The three-day format is also used in Big Ten championships and the NCAA championships.
“This will be a good test run for the format,” NU women’s coach Jimmy Tierney said.
The women’s team defeated No. 24 Minnesota on Saturday, 184-114, to bring its record to 1-1-1. NU is ranked No. 21.
Tierney said the team is usually ranked slightly higher at this point in the season.
“I think more than likely we’ll move up during the year,” he said.
Tierney said the women will be going into this weekend’s meet without much rest after a rigorous week of practice.
“We want to do well, but we didn’t do anything special to prepare for it,” Tierney said.
The teams attending the meet this weekend to take on both Wildcats squads are Purdue, Southern Illinois and Louisville.
“(Purdue has) some skilled athletes, some girls that made the NCAA championships last year,” Tierney said. “They’ll be our biggest competitor.”
Tierney said the team has no major injuries and he doesn’t expect one team member would stand out significantly.
“We could have a number of swimmers that come out with victories, including divers,” Tierney said.
The men’s 172-120 victory over Eastern Michigan last weekend bettered its record to 2-1. The men finished the meet victorious despite an early setback when their 200-meter medley relay team was disqualified. The Cats finished first in 14 of the 16 events last weekend.
The men’s team, currently ranked 20th, began the season with a ranking for the first time in NU history.
Men’s coach Bob Groseth said his team will also use this meet as practice for Big Tens and the NCAA championships. He said the championship style will be used to test team members in events for Big Tens.
“This meet will be a good chance for some of the younger guys to get practice for the bigger meets later in the season,” junior Mike Shue said.
Groseth said the Cats have no serious injuries that will hurt their performance this weekend. He said he expected the only injuries to be the usual soreness.
“We expect our guys to be able to perform pretty well,” Groseth said.
He also said the men’s team plans to learn from its competition.
“Purdue is a very good team and will present a very good challenge for us,” he said. “SIU also has some very good individuals.”
Shue, one of the team’s co-captains, said there are a lot of expectations on the team this year.
“We had one major wake-up call two weekends ago versus Wisconsin,” Shue said of NU’s only defeat this season. “We are looking to continue on the positive note that we set last weekend with Eastern Michigan.”
The weekend’s swimming and diving events begin tomorrow at 6 p.m. at the Norris Aquatic Center. The NU Invite will continue throughout the day on Saturday and Sunday.
