MEN'S SWIMMING: Irish look to swallow Grizzlies
By NOREEN GILLESPIE
Sports Writer
In December's Notre Dame Invitational, Oakland University was the only team that came close to threatening the Irish stronghold on the meet.
The Irish swallowed the Golden Grizzlies easily by the conclusion of the weekend to win the competition. Saturday, the men's swimming and diving team will look to beat Oakland again as the two teams square off in dual meet competition.
"Just because we beat them in the Invite doesn't mean we'll beat them in the dual meet," said co-captain Jonathan Pierce. "We have to stay focused and keep our heads in the game."
The Irish men kick off a four-meet streak that will end their dual meet season mid-February. It's the final stretch to fine tune their skills and qualify for the Big East Championships — making the next month a critical time in the team's schedule.
"We want a little more experience in our primary events for the swimmers," said head coach Tim Welsh. "We want to go faster each week, and look at the scoreboard at the end of the day and be pleased with our performance and points."
This weekend's matchup against Oakland will be the toughest challenge for the Irish. While they defeated Oakland earlier this season, they dropped the dual meet to Oakland last year. Traditionally one of Notre Dame's most competitive dual meets, it will be the hardest meet of the season, Pierce said.
Oakland is strong in the sprinting events, with two of its relays high in national rankings. The 200-yard freestyle relay is ranked fourth nationally, and the 400-yard relay ranked sixth.
The Irish have the advantage in the distance events and diving, and should be competitive in the 400-yard individual medley as well. But the key will be stopping Oakland headliners, such as sophomore Sean Broadbent, who posted the fastest Oakland sprint times at last years Mid-Con Championships, and was elected Newcomer of the Year by the conference.
"Our objective will be to break up the top people so they don't dominate the events," said Welsh.
But Oakland's lack of depth might give the Irish an in to break up those top performers.
"Oakland has a limited number of really fast swimmers," Pierce said. "They're not nearly as deep as we are. We need to focus on events where they put their good swimmers, because they're going to expect them to win."
"We pretty much can't be afraid," said sophomore sprinter Matt Obringer. "We can't think about what they've got. We know we've worked hard. We pretty much just have to go after it."
The meet begins at Rolfs Aquatic Center at 2 p.m.
All Sports Stories for Friday, January 18, 2002
