Team prepares for Big Ten championship

Heading into their fourth consecutive weekend of competition, the women's swimming and diving team travels to Lexington, Ky., Saturday for a double dual meet with Kentucky and Cincinnati at 11 a.m.\nThe No. 19 Hoosiers (5-1-1, 4-1-1 Big Ten) suffered their first dual meet loss last weekend against Big Ten foe Penn State, but will look to regain their confidence against the Wildcats (2-5) and Bearcats (5-1). The double dual meet will be IU's final dual meet before the Big Ten Championships begin on Feb. 21.\nIU swimming head coach Dorsey Tierney expects the meet to help the Hoosiers continue in preparation for the Big Ten Championships.\n"The challenge for us is to maintain focus," Tierney said. "It is more of a mental challenge and will help because at Big Ten's you have to stay on top of your game for three days."\nIU and Cincinnati will be going head-to-head for the second time this year as the Bearcats competed in the Indiana Invitational where they finished fourth. The Hoosiers won the event.\nTierney said the Hoosiers have had a great week of training and will look to fine tune their racing skills in this weekend's competition. She is also looking to finalize the Hoosiers' relay teams who Tierney believes have been somewhat inconsistent of late.\n"I still don't think we have had all four girls on relays as good as they can be," Tierney said. "That's the challenge, to have all four swimmers on the relays be at their very best."\nThe Hoosier divers are using the Kentucky and Cincinnati meet in much the same fashion as the IU swimmers, a preparation for the Big Ten Championships.\nJennifer Sonneborn believes a good meet would give the Hoosiers confidence heading into the conference championship.\n"We are working on a lot of new dives," Sonneborn said. "Hopefully the meet will be a good confidence builder and we will be able to get our dives off the way we want to be doing them for Big Ten's."\nFollowing last week's meet, diving coach Dr. Jeff Huber thought the Hoosiers dove much better in warm-ups than in competition. Huber said turning the team's focus to competition has been the primary goal this week.\n"Sometimes it is easy for athletes to get up and be ready too early," Huber said. "We have looked good at some meets, but it has been in warm-ups. It is easy to warm up really well and then be flat for competition, so we want to save that little extra. We will continue to focus on training, but training is only a means to an end and the end is competing and diving well in competition"