Team heads to Texas for first test of year

This weekend, the women's swimming and diving team will be traveling to Dallas, Texas, to face off in the SMU Classic. \nThis is the first time in the five-year tenure of IU coach Doris Tierney that the swim team will head to Dallas for the competition. Tierney is prepping the team to its fullest potential for every meet, and this one is no different.\n"We're not backing off at all as far as our work load," Tierney said. "It's such an early season meet against a high level of competition, and we're just excited to get an opportunity to race early."\nThe field will contain four ranked teams from last year's final poll. The teams will include No. 2 Florida, No. 5 SMU, No.16 IU and No. 23 Washington.\nThe meet will take place tonight and Saturday at 7 p.m. at Perkins Natatorium in Dallas. There will be nine IU athletes competing in the meet, eight swimmers and one diver. The lone diver competing is freshman Lindsay Weigle, who was also named Big Ten "Diver of the Week" Wednesday. This will be her first trip as an IU diver.\n"I'm a little nervous because I haven't thrown my hard dives on either board," Weigle said.\nIU diving coach Jeff Huber has kept the same routine going for Weigle and really isn't taking any special preparations for this meet. Huber feels it's a little too early in the year for any special preparations. \n"It's hard because we have all these meets, and we have to do the things we need to do in order to be ready at the end of the season to really look good," Huber said. "We kind of make a conscious effort to work on fundamentals and not really get ready for these early meets, and make sure we lay a solid foundation for the end of the season."\nThe eight swimmers that will be traveling to Dallas are seniors Erin Gorlesky, Greer McGettrick, Meghan Medendorp and Brooke Taflinger; juniors Tammy Kostner and Erin Smith; sophomore Lauren Lubus and freshman Leila Vaziri.\nLast season the team had a stellar invitational record. The women won the Big Ten Championship along with the IU Invitational. They also managed to take third at the Miami Invitational and third in the collegiate division of the U.S. Open in December. \nIU had another Big Ten honoree in "Swimmer of the Week." Taflinger took home that honor after a strong performance in the team's meet against Evansville. She claimed three victories in the meet.\nThis is only the second meet for IU, and in their first meet they defeated Evansville 183-104. The team had a strong outing, and Tierney found many strengths and weaknesses. \n"As far as strengths, our sophomore class has really figured things out here," Tierney said. "They have adjusted to the training program really well. However one of our weaknesses is our starts and turns."\nAlong with the SMU Classic, there is also the Indiana Intercollegiate meet taking place Saturday at1 p.m. IU will be sending 11 participants to West Lafayette for this meet. Tierney sounded really confident about this season, and she has high expectations for her team.\n"Overall, we have a pretty high level on our team. (It) is small, but as far as quality of athletes, this is probably the best we have been in my five years," Tierney said.\n-- Contact staff writer Chris Hopper at chopper@indiana.edu.