After a productive 12-day training trip to Miami, the Northwestern women’s swim team heads to Knoxville, Tenn. Saturday for its first dual meet in 2006.
While the Wildcats (4-3) spent their winter break in a vacation hot spot, their stay was hardly a time for rest and relaxation. The swimmers and divers had intense practices every day, stepping up their training as they prepared for their final dual meets of the season.
The latest push comes as coach Jimmy Tierney works to get his team ready both mentally and physically before the Big Ten Championships in February.
“Training-wise they’re in great shape,” Tierney said. “They’re very fit and very strong. All of our early season work has paid off, and now it’s just another month of hard work before they rest for Big Tens.”
The Cats will test themselves this Saturday against a Tennessee squad they have already seen once this season. The two teams competed at the Boilermaker Invitational on Nov. 18-20, where No. 16 Tennessee finished third while NU finished fifth out of seven schools.
Both the Cats and Lady Vols are coming off a long break from competition. Tennessee’s swimmers and divers haven’t hit the pool since Dec. 4, while NU has been idle since Dec. 16.
At that Dec. 16 meet the Cats dominated N.C. State and Miami (Fla.), 108-66 and 108-54. NU won every race in the meet, which consisted of 12 relay events.
Senior Katie Paglini took a leadership role in Florida, becoming what Tierney called “our star performer there.”
“Almost all the different groups we had down there put in some outstanding performances,” said Tierney, who also cited sophomore Katie Welnhofer and senior Sara Petric for impressive Decembers.
Meanwhile, the Cats are viewing the Tennessee meet as a gauge for their physical and mental capability in races.
“It’s going to be a pretty challenging weekend, because (some swimmers are) going to be racing some six times that day, ” Tierney said. “They’re not used to doing that much in the same day. We’re looking to see how they respond to that.”
Another big focus of the Cats’ late-December practices was mental preparation and racing strategy. NU swimmers and divers worked on what Tierney called “the little things (that are) actually big things” in races, such as starts, turns and timing in relays.
Tierney said the coaching staff hopes to use the squad’s three dual meets prior to Big Tens to correct weaknesses in the swimmers and divers, while fine tuning their technique and strokes. Mostly, Tierney just wants his swimmers to find a comfort zone in races that will give them an advantage come February.
“Everybody’s different,” Tierney said. “Some people pay attention to detail when they race, some shut their mind off.”
As for Saturday’s meet against Tennessee, Tierney is not too concerned about the final score. “(We) want to just get them back into racing at a competitive level.”
Reach Ben Larrison at [email protected]
