The swimming and diving team will head to Evanston, Illinois this weekend to compete in the Northwestern Invitational — their biggest meet of the fall semester. After falling to Notre Dame last weekend, the boys are looking to regain their confidence against the other four teams competing.
“It’s not the deepest field, which will be good for our team because I think we have the ability to get to second (final) swims. I think it fits really well for us. The facility isn’t the biggest so the less teams the better for us because it will lend us some fast swimming,” head coach Matt Gianiodis said. “No matter who is there it doesn’t make a difference — we will perform the best we can.”
Truman State, Air Force Academy, St. Louis, Chicago Illinois and, the hosts, Northwestern will all go head-to-head starting at 9 a.m. Friday in the three-day weekend invitation. The Spartans main focus is on Northwestern, the only other Big Ten team competing.
There are twelve swimmers and divers from Illinois and traveling there gives their families the chance to see them compete. Gianiodis said, “We have a lot of alumni in that area so they come out and see us.”
In addition, freshman Lachie McLeish was named Big Ten Freshman of the Week, announced Tuesday by the conference.
Gianiodis says their plan for the rest of the season is “go to the invitational, put up really good times, and taking care of exams, get back into training, go to Florida, train hard, go home and then get ready for second semester when we have a lot of dual meets and the Big Ten Championships.”
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