IU hosts top swimmers

For the fifth consecutive year, IU's Counsilman/Billingsley Aquatic Center played host to the Speedo Champions Series. The series is a very serious and intense event, but as usual, IU was up to the challenge of hosting such an important meet. The meet, which began last Tuesday and concluded Saturday, featured the best swimmers from around the Midwest. \n"It is a great competition, a very highly competitive meet," said Ohio swimming coach Mark Davis.\nA multitude of preparation also goes into the event, both by the swimmers themselves and the organizers at IU. \nCompetitors, aging from 14 to 21, began preparations for the event in early March and only the best times were good enough to qualify. This year, 577 swimmers from Indiana, Ohio and Michigan qualified and made the trip to Bloomington to swim in the series.\nMany of the strongest performers came out of Ohio, especially from the Columbus and Cincinnati areas. But New Albany Aquatics turned in a strong showing for the state of Indiana. \nA lot of preparation goes into the event by the IU Aquatics staff as well. Just like the swimmers at the event, the staff had also been readying themselves for last week's meet for quite some time. \n"There is a lot of preparation on our part," said Assistant Director of Aquatics Annie Eakin, "We have to organize facilities, hospitality, parking, hotel arrangements and we also prepare goody bags for the athletes."\nMost of the coaches and swimmers credit IU for doing a fine job preparing for the event. \n"The entire staff bends over backwards for the swimmers and coaches and officials, and Bloomington is a great area to come to," Davis said.\nBut the hard work done by the aquatics staff is just one of many reasons that IU has hosted the event for five years running. \n"We have a fast pool and we have a very nice facility," Eakin said. "Definitely one of the nicest in the Midwest." \nThe fast pool is another reason that swimmers like IU. It helps participants cut down their times in order to qualify for various important events. \n"Most of the swimmers in the meet are using this meet as a season ending shave and taper meet," Davis said. "So there are some pretty fast swims. Many of the swimmers are trying to achieve the next time standards, like a Junior National time, U.S. Open Time, National or Olympic trial cuts"