ND WOMEN'S SWIMMING: ND hosts Iowa in 3-day meet
By NOREEN GILLESPIE
Sports Writer
Notre Dame swam the University of Iowa before — but it wasn't exactly a serious type of meet.
It didn't even have real events.
During their training trip under sunshine and warm temperatures in Honolulu, Hawaii, the teams squared off for a little non-conventional competition — 75-yard events, 600-yard events, 150-yard events. None were official NCAA events, and none could really measure progress.
Still, it was fun.
"There wasn't a lot of pressure," said junior Laurie Musgrave. "When you swim a 75, you're not sure what time is good for that. It was different, and different is fun."
The Irish won the face-off, capturing 12 of 13 events. But the "fun" events will be put away this weekend, when the Irish face off against Iowa again — this time, for real. Both the University of Iowa and the University of Illinois will arrive on campus for the Notre Dame Dual Meet Invitational — a 3-day dual meet between the three teams.
This time, the only abnormal part of the meet schedule is that it's in mock Championship format — imitating the schedule of events at the Big East and Big Ten Championships.
It is the first in a series of five meets over the next month that will wind down the dual meet season for the Irish and propel them into post-season Championship competition.
"They're extremely critical," said Irish head coach Bailey Weathers about the upcoming meets. "We have a lot of decisions to make for Big East. The hard decision at this point is in terms of who swims the relays ... it's a matter of figuring out who's the best person."
The Irish have several headliners vying for positions on the relays — four backstrokers, three breaststrokers, four butterfliers and four freestylers. Swimmers will also have to make decisions over the next month about what events to swim at the conference championships.
And they know it's crunch time.
"This month is going to be really big for us," Musgrave said. "It's really time to start to bear down and focus."
The Irish swim Villanova on Jan. 26, Northwestern on Jan. 31 and University of Michigan on Feb. 2. Michigan and Northwestern, the most difficult competitions on the schedule, land at the end of the season — leaving the Irish no room to back off at the end.
"It's set up that way to have our most important dual meet competitions at the end," Weathers said. "That's the type of competition we're going to face across the board at Big East."
It also will force the Irish to hang onto their undefeated dual meet record for the season.
"It's not too unrealistic," Weathers said. "We haven't been beaten this year, and to win that out would be huge for us."
The Irish swim tonight at Rolfs Aquatics Center at 6 p.m., and Saturday at 10 a.m. and 6 p.m.
All Sports Stories for Friday, January 18, 2002
