This weekend, Northwestern goes up against Notre Dame and Wisconsin in a double-dual meet. The meet stretches over a period of two days, with the swimmers racing in half of the events Friday afternoon and the other half Saturday.

The Badgers are consistently ranked in the top 20 nationally and are currently slotted at No. 16 in the nation.

“We’ve swam pretty strongly against them in the last couple of years, even though we haven’t beaten them in a few years, but I think we’ve raced them pretty well the last couple of years,” coach Jimmy Tierney said. “They’re a team that has been in the top 10 in the nation for a couple of years, but I think we’ve closed the gap in terms of our depth and talent, so I think this will be one of the closer meets that we’ve had in a couple of years.”

But the women haven’t competed recently against No. 22 Notre Dame.

“We haven’t swum the Notre Dame women in several years, so we really don’t have much to compare to right now,” Tierney said.

But Tierney knows that the Fighting Irish will be putting their best foot forward against the Wildcats.

Tierney said he also is excited for the return of senior diver Leanne Dumais.

“We’re expecting our divers to perform really well. We have Leanne Dumais back, and that should make a big difference for us, so we’re looking forward to it,” Tierney said.

Despite the tough competition ahead of them this weekend, Tierney remains optimistic.

“I think if they show the same energy and passion that they did when we swam against Purdue, then we are going to do really well, whether or not we can knock off one of the teams, I’m not sure,” Tierney said. “But I think if they have that type of desire to race, I think we are going to win a number of races, and it will be a very close meet.”

Tierney is also beginning to prepare the women’s teams for the Georgia Invitational, which is the weekend after Thanksgiving Break.

“We’re going to go ahead and let them go home and spend some time with their families and have some quality time at home. And when they come back, they’ll be mentally refreshed and be ready to go to that meet,” Tierney said. “I think it will be a nice break for them. When we come back, we’ll have a few days to get ready before we fly out.”

This season, the team will be racing against several teams ranked in the top 25, including No. 5 Georgia and No. 19 Virginia.

Reach Bette Marston at [email protected].