Notre Dame joins 14 other schools as they travel to the Ohio State Invite this weekend, a meet that will be modeled after larger tournament meets such as the Big East Conference Championship and the NCAA Tournament meet.
Irish Coach Tim Welsh looks at this meet as a turning point in the season as the Irish prepare for their winter training trip.
"This is the focal meet for our fall semester, we put a lot of importance on what happens here," Welsh said. "We want to learn where we are, and what we need to improve on. It will shape our training trip between semesters, and will tell us the areas we need to emphasize in the weeks in Puerto Rico. This is a significant test."
The Irish are 4-1 heading into the Ohio State Invite and are coming off of their first conference victory over Pittsburgh. The early portion of the season has been used as a learning tool for Notre Dame, and they will attempt to take those findings and implement them in this meet.
"This week we have been trying to clean things up a bit," Welsh said. "We've tried to sharpen our technique up a lot, clean up our races so the paces are well placed. We've been cleaning things up to make them race ready."
Notre Dame will compete against two Big East teams (Pittsburgh and West Virginia) as well as three Big Ten teams, including host Ohio State and the always formidable Minnesota. All other schools will only compete in the diving events.
"All six teams are strong, and we come here to try to beat a couple of them," Welsh said. "We're hoping for great things in every event."
An added bonus of the Ohio State Invite is that the NCAA championships take place in the same pool, so Notre Dame will get a preview of things to come.
"One of the other plusses is the men's NCAA championships will be at Ohio State, so this is like a dress rehearsal for the men's NCAA championships at the pool where that event will be held."
