Road trips take team down south

The men's swimming and diving team begins a string of four road meets when they square off today against Kentucky, and then head to Tennessee to face the Volunteers Saturday. The Hoosiers are coming off an impressive 164-116 home victory against Evansville to open up the season, but are weary of the tougher competition the Kentucky and Tennessee squads hold for them. \n"The competition will be pretty rough," said senior Mike Payne, who will be swimming in the 50-yard freestyle and relay events. "We are definitely underdogs on paper." \nFreshman Scott Tanner was cautious but confident about the upcoming meets this weekend. \n"The competition this weekend will be very tough," Tanner said. "Overall, the team is very confident, but we are not letting our guards down." \nKentucky is led by All-American honorable mentions Fernando Barros, Daniel Cruz, Daniel Farnham and Steven Manley. They are coming off a season-opening loss at home to Tennessee. The Volunteer's big threat comes on the diving platform, where they are led by Phillip Jones, the defending NCAA champion on the 3-meter board. The Hoosiers will be led by junior Ryan Fagan, who took first place in the 1-meter diving event against Evansville. Men's diving coach Jeff Huber said he is pleased with the preparation Fagan has gone through for the upcoming weekend. \n"It's been a good week for Ryan," Huber said, who is in his 15th season as IU's head diving coach. "He's made a number of little improvements over the past few days." \nNext weekend, the Hoosiers will travel to Wisconsin and Northwestern for two consecutive road meets, Friday and Saturday, respectively.\n-- Contact staff writer Scott Lipsky at slipsky@indiana.edu.