Notre Dame is set to compete in the Boilermaker Invitational this weekend at the Boilermaker Aquatic Center in West Lafayette, Indiana. The three-day tournament will begin on Friday and continue through Sunday.
The five-team tournament will be hosted by Purdue and also feature Missouri State, Wyoming and Southern Illinois.
Irish head coach Matt Tallman said his team is looking forward to competing against some teams they will see near the end of the season.
“This will be a great group of teams for us,” Tallman said. “I am sure that the teams will have an emphasis in some capacity on this meet. It is not often that you get to do a dress rehearsal for the championship meets that end the season.”
The Boilermakers come into the tournament with a record of 3-2, last scoring a 188-112 upset over No. 21 Iowa on Nov. 6, while both Missouri State and Wyoming enter the weekend sporting records of 3-1. Southern Illinois comes into the weekend with a record of 1-1, having split a triple-dual meet against No. 14 Missouri and Kentucky on Nov. 7.
The Irish are coming into the Boilermaker Invitational with a record of 2-1. Their last event was a triple-dual meet with against Pittsburgh and No. 17 Virginia Tech in which the Irish defeated the Panthers and fell to the Hokies. Among the notable finishes for the Irish in that event were sophomore Robby Whitacre winning the 200-yard backstroke, junior Kevin Bradley winning the 200-yard butterfly, and the relay team of Bradley, freshman Daniel Speers, sophomore Justin Plaschka and freshman Tabahn Afrik winning the 400-yard freestyle relay.
The Boilermaker Invitational will be the last event for the Irish in the 2015 calendar year. Their next meet will be on Jan. 8, but Tallman said his team wants to end 2015 the right way at the Boilermaker Invitational and gain momentum rolling into the spring semester. He also said the meet will give the coaching staff a chance at an early evaluation of where the team stands heading into the break.
“We are looking to end the semester of competition on a high note,” Tallman said. “Three-day meets are filled with a lot of races and this meet will help us see how our teammates will respond under this type of pressure. There is always a lot on the line in these meet during the season. It will help us make roster selections for the ACC meet as we look to achieve the goals that were established earlier in the year.”
The Irish will begin the three-day tournament at Boilermaker Aquatic Center in West Lafayette, Indiana, on Friday at 10 a.m.
