The women's swimming and diving team is prepared to embark on its greatest challenge of the year, and quite possibly the greatest challenge in team history.

The team will bring 23 swimmers and divers Amy Schmidt and Tara Stevens to Indianapolis, Ind., and its first appearance at the Big Ten Women's Swimming Championships, beginning tomorrow and continuing through Saturday.

The team is leaving the comfortable confines of the Eastern Women's Swimming League Championships, where it has never finished less than third, and is entering into the unfamiliar Big Ten atmosphere.

"It's a different meet every year," Michigan Coach Jim Richardson said. "This year will probably be the deepest and the fastest conference championships ever."

The Lady Lions (11-2, 5-1 in the Big Ten) will be gunning for the defending conference champion Michigan. The Lady Wolverines have won five straight titles, and they are favored to win this year as well.

"I'm always uncomfortable being the favorite," Richardson said. "I've always been an underdog person.

"Penn State is going to dramatically affect the meet. Teams are not going to score as many points as they have in the past. (And) we can't go in thinking defensively. If you swim defensive, you're dead. On paper, we're as strong a team as we were last year. But we have some key individuals who are not performing at the same level as last year."

Lady Lion Coach Bob Krimmel said he is expecting to finish anywhere from third to seventh.

"Michigan is the favorite, (and) Northwestern is probably the second-best team in the conference. The next five positions will probably be between Minnesota, Ohio State, Purdue, Penn State and Wisconsin," Krimmel said.

The Lady Lions will face a smaller field than they did at the Easterns, but it will be a tougher meet.

"In size, the Big Tens will be smaller than Eastern Championships," Krimmel said. "But the talent is light years ahead of the Easterns. That's the exciting part.

"Last year's (Big Ten Championships) was the fastest conference championships in the country. If that holds true, it's a great place to be, especially if we swim at the level of the competition."

Swimming at the level of the competition will also help certain team members to qualify for the NCAA Championships in March.

"We've got individuals and relays with a shot at qualifying for the NCAAs," Krimmel said. "This is when it happens. It's an exciting time of the year. Amazing things come out of nowhere."

"I hope to qualify for the NCAAs in the 200 (butter)fly," Jen Wilson said. "It's one of the fastest pools and some of the best competition in the country, (so) I'm going to have the chance."

Diving Coach Craig Brown said he is confident of the divers' chances for a title.

"The depth of the conference is real strong, but if we have a solid showing we can compete with anybody," he said. "There are about six or seven girls who can win (the diving titles), and either of ours can.

"(Amy and Tara) have been looking good. They're real strong and reasonably well-polished."

Brown said the divers have "postponed learning new dives. We're focused on (NCAA) Pre-Quals. We're trying to fine tune -- get super-sharp. (The divers) will be ready for Big Tens."

"The Big Ten is intimidating," Schmidt said. "But with our schedule, we've faced the top Big Ten schools. It should be a good challenge."

Certain intangibles may aid the Lady Lions in the meet.

"It's a new experience," Krimmel said. "We tend to get up for (challenges). Plus the girls don't know many of the other swimmers, so they may stick together as a team more."

"I think (the atmosphere) at the Big Tens is going help Penn State," Richardson said. "They're going to find that it raises everybody to a higher level of swimming."

"We're new and we've never been there," Jen Baird said. "Everybody's really excited to see what it's going to be like."

Krimmel said he and the team are looking forward to the challenge.

"I can hardly wait to go," he said. "We've been in the Easterns so long that it's become like a family. But eventually you have to go out on your own. A lot of the coaches of the Eastern teams really envy us.

"Our overall yardage is down in practice. We've spent a lot more time on relay starts and turns. Practices have been really good. The swimmers are very excited."

"Excited" may be an understatement.

"I'm really psyched to go," Lori Williams said. "I'm swimming better than I have in the past. I'm looking to have fun and take what comes my way, and hopefully it'll be good. We can't wait to show everyone what Penn State can do in the Big Ten."

"As a whole, I think Penn State is intimidating," Wilson said. "We cheer a lot and stick together and other schools might look at that and get a little intimidated.

"Everybody has been swimming really fast in practices. I hope we get off to a good start Thursday and keep it going through to Saturday."

"I think we have a great chance to make second place," Baird said. "We've been doing a lot of sprint work in practice. We're looking really fast. I'm really excited. It should be fun."

The format changes of the Big Ten Championships will include the swimming of the 1,650-yard freestyle instead of the 1,000 free, the swimming of both 200 and 400 Individual Medley races, and the addition of platform diving. Preliminaries will be held in the morning and finals will take place the same evening.