University of Minnesota Athletics
Swimming and Diving Travels to Wisconsin
10/27/2011 12:00:00 AM | Women's Swimming & Diving
Oct. 27, 2011
The Minnesota women's swimming and diving team hits the road Friday afternoon to take on Big Ten Conference-rival Wisconsin beginning at 5 p.m., at the Natatorium. The Gophers improved to 3-0 on the season after sweeping visiting Kansas, 206-87, in a non-conference dual meet at the University Aquatic Center last weekend.
Although the Gophers have been off to a strong start they have some challenges they will face this weekend.
"The challenge we will face is that we will travel that morning to Madison by bus," head women's coach Terry Nieszner said. "Competing on the same day as travel can be challenging, but it allows us to miss less school and compete under less than ideal circumstances. This gives our team experience to race and dive when they may not feel at their best. We feel this is a great experience, especially for our freshmen. The facility at Madison is also not what we are used to with our outstanding aquatic center here at Minnesota. Again, this gives us experience to deal with a competitive environment that is less than ideal. However, the expectation of the coaches and team will be to perform at the highest level and compete for this border battle victory."
Minnesota continued with another dual-meet victory against the Jayhawks last weekend with Tori Simenec and Tess Behrens winning multiple events. Also, for the third-straight week, sophomore Maggie Keefer won 1-meter diving with her third-consecutive NCAA Zone Diving qualifying mark of 303.15 in the event, and junior Katie Grunawalt took first-place honors in 3-meter diving with a score of 315.30, her second NCAA Zone Diving qualifying mark in the event this season.
The Badgers competed in the SMU Classic against some of the top teams in the nation last weekend, placing sixth in the meet with 241.50 points.
"Going into a Big Ten dual meet with Wisconsin is always exciting," Nieszner said. "As we all know, there is always a higher level of competitiveness when it is a Gopher-Badger face-off. Our team is on a roll and can't wait to race again."
