IU to host Big Ten Championships

The No. 11 IU men's swimming and diving team welcomes some top-ranked teams to the Counsilman-Billingsley Aquatic Center today as they play host to the 2006 Big Ten Championships. The Big Ten currently boasts seven teams in the top 25.\n"This is a very emotional atmosphere," IU coach Ray Looze said. "I expect it to be charged and electric." Senior Kevin Swander said "electric" would be an understatement when describing the mood inside IU's home facility.\nThe Hoosiers head into the championships featuring eight swimmers who have combined for 12 NCAA qualifying times, while two relay teams also met the standard. All six divers for IU have obtained zone qualifying scores. \nIn last year's Big Ten Championships, held at Minnesota, the Hoosiers led the Gophers by five points as they entered the final event of the championships, the 400-yard freestyle. In the final leg of the race, Minnesota's Igor Cerensek passed Northwestern's David Kormushoff to win the race, giving the Gophers enough points to overcome the Hoosiers for the Big Ten Championship.\n"It leaves a bad feeling in your mouth," Swander said. "We hold a grudge about last year and we're going to go out and swim like it. Three is the magic number and that is what we have been saying all year."\nFor Looze, the plan for his team is simple -- score as many points as possible. \n"The idea is to have who we brought to this meet score individually, swimmers and divers," Looze said. "It's a tough meet do that at." \nThe Hoosiers said they hope that simple plan will help them end a 21-year drought for a Big Ten Championship.\n"We want it really bad since there has been a long time span," senior captain Mike Jones said. "We're ready to win and prepared to swim as fast as we can."\nWith nearly three weeks gone by since the Hoosiers last meet, the team has had plenty of time to brush up and fine-tune its swimming performance for the Big Ten Championships.\n"We focused on getting fast," Looze said. "We worked on our technique, relay exchanges, turns, starts and the fundamentals. The training has dropped quite a bit as we are in the process of tapering right now"