Notre Dame will host Northwestern and Iowa in South Bend, Ind., this weekend for two days of fierce prelims and final competition.

The Hawkeyes are a close rival of the Wildcats, having claimed narrow victories the past two seasons. NU placed higher at last year’s Big Ten Championships, ranking eighth while Iowa came in 10th.

Sophomore Ellen Anderson remains optimistic for the weekend, despite the team’s inconsistent performance this season.  She said January can often be a difficult month, coming off of Winter Break and the team’s annual training trip. But the freestyler thought the Cats put in a lot of effort in the last few weekends, losing only in cases of close final scores.

Anderson also said the season is quickly coming to a close, with everyone “looking to practice getting into that championship race mode.” The sophomore said there is little time to focus on the past.

Practices are already changing to prep the team for the championship contest. Anderson, a distance swimmer slated to race the 200, 500 and 1650-yard freestyle both this weekend and at the Big Tens, said the volume of work in practices has yet to decrease. However, the team looks forward to the practices leading up to Big Tens, which include decreased yardage but greater technique work.

This weekend’s Shamrock Invitational is NU’s last chance to swim competitively before the conference championships. Freshman Lauren Abruzzo said the team is excited for its upcoming challenges.

“The meet tomorrow is a stepping stone to champs,” Abruzzo said. “Everything about this week gets us even more fired up.”

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