Fresh off wins against Michigan and Northwestern, the Irish women's swimming and diving squad looks to defeat another Big Ten foe when they travel to Bloomington to face Indiana on Saturday at the Counsilman-Billingsley Aquatic Center. No. 19 Notre Dame will face the Hoosiers in the first meet between the in-state rivals since the 2002-03 season.
The two schools competed at the Ohio State Invitational in early December, with the Irish finishing in fifth place and the Hoosiers taking seventh with their B squad. However, the Hoosiers will present more of a challenge in this meet, according to sophomore Emma Reaney, with a full complement of swimmers racing on Saturday.
"They've been known for a while to be a strong swimming program," Reaney said. "But I think we're well prepared from our meet last weekend to take them on."
Last Saturday, Notre Dame won 11 events en route to a 185-115 victory over the Wolverines and a 205-95 defeat of the Wildcats.
Reaney attributed the Irish success to the team's annual Florida training trip during Christmas break.
"The training trip worked out really well," Reaney said. "It was nice just to focus only on swimming during the trip, which made it real easy to see all the things to improve on."
Against Michigan and Northwestern, Reaney and senior Kim Holden each led the Irish squad with three individual event wins to lead the team to their first team victory against either Big Ten opponent since the 2005-06 season.
Reaney set Rolfs Aquatic Center records in the 100-yard and 200-yard breaststroke events, shattering record times previously set by USC and US Olympic swimmer Rebecca Soni in 2007.
Her third win came in the 200-yard IM, and all three of her victories earned NCAA B-cut times. Following her weekend successes, Reaney was named Big East Women's Swimming and Diving Athlete of the Week for the third time this season.
Meanwhile, Holden won the 100 and 200-yard backstroke and 100-yard fly and finished with NCAA B-cut times in the first two.
"Kim is one of the hardest workers I've met," Reaney said. "She dealt with shoulder injuries last year, and it's been inspiring to watch her swim this season."
Notre Dame and Indiana hit the pool at 11 a.m. Saturday in Bloomington, Ind. Following the meet against Indiana, the Irish will host Towson in the annual Shamrock Invitational on Jan. 25-26 at the Rolfs Aquatic Center.
Contact Matt Unger at munger@nd.edu
