Hoosiers compete against 'Cats

The IU men's swimming and diving team is ready to play host to No. 18 Northwestern 1 p.m. Saturday at the Counsilman-Billingsley Aquatic Center. The 3-0 Hoosiers have been working hard in practice all week to prepare to upset the Wildcats. \n"We have just been trying to swim fast in work-out so we are ready to go," coach Ray Looze Jr. said. "The guys are positive and we have an undefeated home record to defend." \nLooze said Northwestern will be a tough team to beat because their top swimmers could potentially win all of the events. But he plans on making a creative line-up in hopes to be competitive enough to win. Looze said his team needs to win the 50 and 100-yard freestyle events in order to stay in the meet. \nLeading the way for the Hoosiers in the two events will be junior sprinter Claes Andersson. Andersson had to miss the Iowa meet due to injury which showed IU is capable of winning under adverse conditions. But the Wildcats will be a tougher opponent than the Hawkeyes. \nLooze said IU and Northwestern both lack depth on their teams, but the Wildcat's top swimmers are faster than IU's top swimmers. He said he hopes the outside lane swimmers step up on Saturday just as they did against Iowa to score extra points that will be needed.\n"We need our third and fourth fastest swimmers to step up and perform like our top guys in each event in order to win," sophomore freestyler Brian Ellsworth said. "We need a total team effort to win and I think it is something we are capable of." \nLooze said the team has been working on their fundamentals, and their execution has improved each week in practice, but their turns and starts will need to be flawless against Northwestern. Looze said in order to beat a Top 20 team, mistakes can't be made. \nDiving coach Jeff Huber was disappointed with the diving team's performance against Iowa, but he has a positive outlook for Saturday's meet.\n"I think they came in with a kind of renewed vigor and more of a focus this week," Huber said. "But we aren't doing anything to rest or really prepare for this meet." \nHuber said the team needs to be ready each week to compete in dual meets, but their overall goal is to train hard every week for the championships at the end of the season. He said the team has been training hard on platform for the end of the season, but has also been focusing on their 1-meter and 3-meter dives as well. Huber said he is not concerned with the Northwestern divers and hopes to see improvement from IU on the 1 and 3-meter. If the team wins it will be even more pleasing. \n"I think Coach Huber has been a little more pleased," sophomore Ryan Fagan said. "He just wants us to focus on what we're doing as a team and not worry as much about the competition." \nThe Hoosiers hope that competing at home will give them an advantage over the Wildcats. Looze said he hopes to keep the meet competitive until the very end. \n"If we can bring this meet to the last relay, we could win," Looze said.