This is why the swimmers and divers got up before sunrise to attend 6 a.m. practices. This is why the Lady Lions swam 12 meets against quality conference and tough non-conference opponents.

This is the Big Ten Women's Swimming and Diving Championships. And it begins today in Indianapolis, Ind., with Michigan and Northwestern the odds-on-favorites to win the championship. But the Lady Lions are not going to allow their season of hard work go for naught -- they want to join the Wolverines and Wildcats in the top three.

Unfortunately for Coach Bob Krimmel's squad, they can no longer take advantage of being the new member in the conference. This will be Penn State's third trip to the championships, and the other teams are certainly aware of that.

"The first year, we didn't have any clue of what we were getting into," Krimmel said. "Last year, we were well prepared, but this year there is overall league balance. Two teams will battle for the championship, but the rest of the teams are so even. Over the three days, teams that have problems or an off-day will end up in the bottom half."

Krimmel sees Michigan, the venerable defending champion, and Northwestern, looking for its first championship, as the top two teams. Minnesota Coach Jean Freeman echoed Krimmel's sentiments.

"It's kind of like Michigan and Northwestern have first and second all sewn up," Freeman said. "It's wide open from third to seventh. We're going to lay it all out for three days and see who are the best swimmers."

Michigan Coach Jim Richardson said he thinks his team is one of the hunters, not the hunted. The team lost some great swimmers to graduation, including All-American Mindy Gehrs. Also concerning Richardson is the fact that freshman Leigh Bassler injured her shoulder last summer and is not the championship-caliber swimmer that she was in high school.

"It will be very difficult for us to win an eighth title in a row," said Richardson, whose team lost 163 points from last season's championship total to graduation. "We're looking at it differently -- this team is not the same team we had last year -- this team has never won the Big Ten Championship."

The general Penn State opinion is that the Lady Lions have a realistic chance of finishing in the top three. Of course, each swimmer has individual goals for the championships, and if those goals are achieved, the team's goal will become more of a reality.

"I'm concentrating on my times, I want to make the NCAA cut in the 50 and 100 (freestyle)," said junior Deni Rudy, who participated in those events at last year's NCAA Championships. "If I do really well, the places will come with it."

Senior tri-captain Jen Baird was a Big Ten finalist in the 100 and 200 butterfly events last year. She is looking forward to these championships, the last conference meet of her career.

"It's kind of weird -- it really hasn't hit me yet," the Branford, Conn., native said. "I want to go out and do the best I can do. What I don't want to do is look back and say, 'I could've done better.' "

Even though Penn State's last regular-season meet against Villanova was 12 days ago, the team is anything but rusty.

"We're psyched to go," Baird said. "We've been bouncing off the walls -- it'll be nice to channel that energy into the pool and swim fast."