As Notre Dame's regular season draws to a close, the team may be treating its last meet against Toledo more as a tune-up. The Irish will travel to Toledo, Ohio, on Saturday, although the outcome does not overly concern them, according to senior diver Jenny Chiang.
"We're treating this more of a tune-up," Chiang said. "At this point everyone's focusing on the Big East championships. This meet is a good feeler to see what we still need to work on."
While Chiang and the rest of the Irish may not be very excited for this meet, she said the season has come to a quick end.
"It went by a lot faster than any of us expected, but its nice to know that it's ending because a lot of what we do is to build up to the conference meet," Chiang said.
Chiang said Notre Dame hopes to carry its current momentum through Toledo and into the conference championships.
"The team feels really good," Chiang said. "The divers have had a couple of good meets and the swimmers had a really good meet at Ohio State, so I think we've got some good momentum going that will hopefully just continue into conference."
Sophomore Emma Reaney and senior Kim Holden have led the swim team this season, with several swimmers already qualified for the NCAA Championships in March. But according to Chiang, the divers have also posted a strong season while surpassing expectations.
"[The season]'s been going well, we've been doing pretty good," Chiang said. "We've got two freshmen on the team who we're really impressed with, they've just gone above and beyond our expectations, so I'm excited to see what the next three or four years will bring."
Chiang said the coaches are also treating the dual meet with the Rockets as a more of an extension of practice.
"For this meet, the coaches just want to see that we're taking what we learned in practice and using it in competition," Chiang said. "They just want to see that we're making improvements. They're trying to keep us excited about the season, because it is a long season, so by the time the end of February rolls around we're all pretty tired."
The Irish wrap up the regular season Saturday in Toledo, Ohio. Competition against the Rockets begins at 3 p.m.
Contact Alex Wilcox at awilcox1@nd.edu