Today will start the mark of the half-way point for the women’s swimming and diving team — and the Notre Dame Invitational in South Bend, Indiana is the location.
The women will compete against 15 teams during the three-day event, and will be used as a measuring tool for the teams progress thus far.
“This meet will be used so that we can fine tune, so that we can see where we will place in the MAC,” said Sarah Agnew, a swimmer on the team. “It’s a good place to see if you’re on track to meet your goal times at the end of the season.”
According to Agnew there will be a lot of Big 10 teams at the meet, and it will be the teams biggest non-MAC meet.
To prepare for this weekend’s meet the swimmers have been cutting down on their training time to try and get some rest — their normal two practices a week have turned into one, and they have been swimming less yards. The divers, on-the-other-hand, have been doing more numbers, Ryan Donley, diver for the team, said. “I think we’re prepared [for this weekends meet],” Donley said. “I think we’ll see where will we will place in the MAC.”
The big news in diving is that the women found themselves with a new coach about three weeks ago. Joshua Clugston, a former diver for the team and a current student at the University, took over as the women’s coach.
Clugston and his divers will be facing one big challenge at this week’s meet, however. Only three of the team’s seven divers will be competing.
“I’m out with knee injuries, Carlee Cusack had shoulder surgery in August and is still recovering, Kristen Author has knee injuries and Emily Hois has a lower back injury,” Donley said.
All the swimmers will be participating in the meet, however. “We’re all really excited,” Agnew said. “I’m excited to watch people swim. We’re not totally rested, but we’re a lot more rested than we’ve been.”
The team won’t have another meet until next semester, but that doesn’t mean that they won’t be training over the break.
“We stay for the whole week of finals, but come back Dec. 27 and [the swimmers] are going to Cocoa Beach in Florida for 10 days,” Agnew said. “It will be a different atmosphere, but our toughest training of the year. NCAA rules say that teams can’t practice for more than 20 hours a week. The rules don’t apply to training trips — basically it’s a work you until you can’t work anymore.”
Women divers will spend the break training in Bowling Green. “We’re staying in Bowling Green and training,” Donley said. “Since the MAC is here on our home boards, we figured we’d make the most of it.”
