Seeking to meet its coaches standards, the IU men's swim and dive team will look to improve on its freestyles and butterflies in its road dual-meet against Purdue on Saturday.
“We want to be perfect,” Head Swimming Coach Ray Looze said. “We’re trying to win a championship, several championships.”
Against Michigan, IU lost the 200 IM, 100 fly, 200 breast and 50 free by less than a second. The Hoosiers also lost two additional events by roughly a second and a half.
While Looze said he wanted more from his swimmers in closing out those tight races, the team still torpedoed Michigan, 173.5-126.5 for its sixth win of the year. On Saturday at Purdue, IU will pursue its 29th consecutive dual-meet win to propel them to 7-0 on the year.
Purdue is coming off its third consecutive victory after defeating Michigan State 164-127 on the road. Here are three things to know for the meet:
1. Battle of the Distance Swimmers
Purdue won three of the five freestyle events against Michigan St., including both the 500 and 1,000 free. Distance swimmer junior Nick McDowell won both of those events with times of 4:30.90 and 9:22.10 respectively.
McDowell will be a solid competitor for IU freshman distance swimmer, Michael Brinegar. Brinegar took fourth on the 500 against Michigan with a time of 4:26.34 and second on the 1,000 with a time of 8:59.65.
2. Diving for the Win
While IU sophomore Andrew Capobianco’s 3-meter victory stripped redshirt senior James Connor of his perfect season diving record, Connor remains undefeated on the 1-meter dive. The two divers will face off against Purdue freshman Ben Bramley and sophomore Greg Duncan.
Duncan won the 1-meter against Michigan State with a score of 380.02 while Bramley took second on the 3-meter with a 289.35.
3. Battle of the Backstrokes
Purdue’s Kiki Komlenic and Joe Young both took first on the 100 and 200 backstroke respectively. Komlenic finished with 50:15 and Young had a time of 1:48.54.
IU Gabriel Fantoni dominated this event last week, taking first in each with times of 46:51 on the 100 and 1:45.44 on the 200. While the times between the schools are fairly close, Fantoni will work to take both events once again.
“Our team is going in the right way,” Fantoni said. “We are working really hard and I think we’re going to get this W for IU.”
