The College Swimming Coaches Association of America (CSCAA) released its Top 25 Swimming and Diving poll Oct. 4, and IU earned some hefty recognition.
The IU men’s team is ranked No. 6 in the country, while the women’s team isn’t far behind at No. 10. The men’s team is the highest ranked Big Ten team, while the women’s team is behind Michigan, which is ranked sixth in the nation.
At the end of last season, the men’s team finished No. 4 in the country, while the women’s team finished with a 15th-place ranking.
The start of the new season is only a few weeks away. The Hoosiers will head to Gainesville, Florida, on Oct. 20 for a tri-meet with Florida and Texas. The tri-meet will last two days and gets underway at 6 p.m.
The men and women’s teams received additional preseason recognition last week as three Hoosiers were nominated for the Golden Goggle Awards. The 14th annual awards show will be Nov. 19 in Los Angeles, where the nation's best swimmers and coaches will celebrate their accomplishments.
The Golden Goggle Awards focus on the top achievements of U.S. swimmers, mainly focusing on the FINA World Championships.
IU’s Lilly King leads the pack with five nominations. King is nominated for Female Athlete of the Year, Female Race of the Year (twice) and Relay Performance of the Year (twice).
King earned Breakout Performer of the Year honors last year.
She added to her trophy collection after grabbing gold in the 4x100m medley relay and the 4x100m mixed medley relay during the 2017 FINA World Championships in Budapest, Hungary.
Overall, King collected four gold medals at the 2017 FINA World Championships along with breaking two world records, in the 50m and 100m breaststrokes, all within a five-day period.
Senior Blake Pieroni is the other Hoosier swimmer to be nominated for the Golden Goggle Awards. He has been nominated for the men's 4x100 freestyle relay at the 2017 FINA World Championships, where the United States led wire-to-wire and grabbed its first victory in the event since 2009.
Lastly, head swimming coach Ray Looze has been nominated for the Coach of the Year after having all four of his swimmers earn medals at the FINA World Championships. Earlier this offseason Aug. 31, Looze was named the 2017 American Swim Coaches Association (ASCA) Coach of the Year.
Online fan voting is now open for the Golden Goggle Awards and it will remain open until Nov. 10.
TC Malik
