Over 500 athletes from 16 different schools will compete as both the men's and women's swimming and diving teams host the Notre Dame Invitational at the Rolfs Aquatic Center today through Saturday.
Excluding the Irish, the men's invitational field will feature 11 other schools, including West Virginia, Denison, Louisville, St. Louis, Indianapolis, Harvard, Shippensburg, Denver, North Dakota and both Wisconsin Milwaukee and Green Bay.
The men's squad hopes to build upon its first dual-meet victory of the season when the Irish (1-5) hit the pool for the crucial midseason meet.
"This is the focal meet of the fall semester for us," head coach Tim Welsh said. "This is our midway report, like the final exam for the first semester ... like how we're doing at halftime with the second half of the game still to play."
On Nov. 14, while Notre Dame picked up a pair of losses against strong squads from No. 20 Brigham Young and No. 22 Iowa, it also tallied its first victory of the season in a 223-62 thrashing of Louisville in a quadrangular meet at Rolfs Aquatic Center.
Should Notre Dame achieve its goal of turning in some of the year's best times come meet's end, Welsh is confident the Irish will sit in a favorable position.
"We're looking for the fastest times of the year and advancing into the Big East qualifying rounds," Welsh said. "We think if we all go individual best times, the score will take care of itself, and we'll be happy with it."
The women's team, on the other hand, looks to rebound from a seventh-place finish at the Texas A&M Invitational two weeks ago.
In addition to the same schools the men face, the women will also challenge Bowling Green, Hillsdale, New Mexico and Northern Michigan.
"Since we've been so sick, we only have a couple of girls swimming the first two days," head coach Bailey Weathers said. "The girls missed a lot of school [due to the illness], and we've kind of forgone the first couple of days to get back on track academically."
Despite a pair of victories by undefeated senior Meghan Perry-Eaton (one- and three-meter diving) and a fifth-place finish by freshman Katie Carroll (100-meter butterfly), the No. 19 Irish (4-1) recorded a meet-low 599 points at Texas A&M, finishing 456 points behind sixth-place Virginia (955) and nearly 1,500 points behind meet-winner UCLA.
"The illness made it hard [to do well]," Weathers said. "Most of the teams were rested and shaved, and we knew that going into the meet so we really didn't expect to win. We were disappointed that we weren't healthy more than anything."
The Irish will be without a pair of swimmers this weekend, as senior Marie Labosky and freshman Rebecca Grove will be competing at the U.S. Open Championships in Federal Way, Wash.
men's and women's swimming and diving teams host the Notre Dame Invitational at the Rolfs Aquatic Center today through Saturday.
Excluding the Irish, the men's invitational field will feature 11 other schools, including West Virginia, Denison, Louisville, St. Louis, Indianapolis, Harvard, Shippensburg, Denver, North Dakota and both Wisconsin Milwaukee and Green Bay.
The men's squad hopes to build upon its first dual-meet victory of the season when the Irish (1-5) hit the pool for the crucial midseason meet.
"This is the focal meet of the fall semester for us," head coach Tim Welsh said. "This is our midway report, like the final exam for the first semester ... like how we're doing at halftime with the second half of the game still to play."
On Nov. 14, while Notre Dame picked up a pair of losses against strong squads from No. 20 Brigham Young and No. 22 Iowa, it also tallied its first victory of the season in a 223-62 thrashing of Louisville in a quadrangular meet at Rolfs Aquatic Center.
Should Notre Dame achieve its goal of turning in some of the year's best times come meet's end, Welsh is confident the Irish will sit in a favorable position.
"We're looking for the fastest times of the year and advancing into the Big East qualifying rounds," Welsh said. "We think if we all go individual best times, the score will take care of itself, and we'll be happy with it."
The women's team, on the other hand, looks to rebound from a seventh-place finish at the Texas A&M Invitational two weeks ago.
In addition to the same schools the men face, the women will also challenge Bowling Green, Hillsdale, New Mexico and Northern Michigan.
"Since we've been so sick, we only have a couple of girls swimming the first two days," head coach Bailey Weathers said. "The girls missed a lot of school [due to the illness], and we've kind of forgone the first couple of days to get back on track academically."
Despite a pair of victories by undefeated senior Meghan Perry-Eaton (one- and three-meter diving) and a fifth-place finish by freshman Katie Carroll (100-meter butterfly), the No. 19 Irish (4-1) recorded a meet-low 599 points at Texas A&M, finishing 456 points behind sixth-place Virginia (955) and nearly 1,500 points behind meet-winner UCLA.
"The illness made it hard [to do well]," Weathers said. "Most of the teams were rested and shaved, and we knew that going into the meet so we really didn't expect to win. We were disappointed that we weren't healthy more than anything."
The Irish will be without a pair of swimmers this weekend, as senior Marie Labosky and freshman Rebecca Grove will be competing at the U.S. Open Championships in Federal Way, Wash.
