Hoosiers travel to face Wolverines

The undefeated IU men's swimming and diving team (6-0, 4-0 Big Ten) will face their toughest challenge of the season when they travel to Ann Arbor, Mich. this weekend to swim against No. 1 Michigan (4-2, 1-0 Big Ten). \nFirst year coach Ray Looze said this meet should be the first real test for the Hoosiers as the Wolverines have one of the most talented squads in the nation. The Hoosiers have lost 13 of their last 15 dual meets to Michigan.\n"This meet will be a big challenge for us," Looze said. "They have a significant amount of talent, and to beat them would be a huge upset. We are going to try to win. We have no choice but to."\nLooze said his strategy against Michigan will be to try to win as many individual events as possible because the Wolverines have the depth on their squad that the Hoosiers lack. \nWhen IU swam ranked teams earlier this season they had mixed results. They were victorious against No. 20 Northwestern, but placed ninth in a field of nine at the Texas Invitational in Austin, Texas. But Looze said he does not look at that as discouragement. He said he instead looks at is as a challenge and a goal for his team. \n"Michigan represents what we want to do with our program," Looze said. "We need to swim more of those types of programs." \nThe swimmers have been training hard in practice and swimming at their highest level of intensity since their winter training trip over winter break in Miami, Fla. Looze said IU has not beaten the Wolverines in some time, and if they win this weekend it could be considered the greatest upset in swimming for the year. \nAfter defeating Ohio State last weekend on the road, junior backstroker Matt Leach said he is optimistic about IU's chances.\n"I think we are moving forward really well," Leach said. "Overall, we're definitely going in the right direction, but this will be a hard opponent for us." \nRight now the team is swimming well together which should help against Michigan, Leach said. \nOn the diving side, coach Jeff Huber said he has been pleased with the progress his team is making. \n"We are doing well and we only have one or two things to work on," Huber said. "We still need to get more comfortable and tough."\nHuber said Michigan has a squad that will be competitive with IU on both the one and three-meter boards. The Wolverines' best diver, junior All-American Jason Coben will go head-to-head in both events with junior Hoosier All-American Marc Carlton. Coben was victorious in both events last season against the Hoosiers, but Huber said Carlton's performance last weekend at Ohio State was outstanding, as he won both the one and three-meter events.\nThe dual meet action will take place in Ann Arbor, Mich. at the Donald B. Canham Natatorium at 1 p.m. on Saturday.