Swimmen hit road to prove mettle

By LAUREN KOCUR
Collegian Staff Writer

This weekend, the Penn State men's swimming and diving team will travel about 1,273 miles, or about 22 hours driving, to compete in two meets that will tell the Nittany Lions exactly where they stand.

First they will drive 550 miles to Indiana University to take on the Hoosiers at 1 p.m. today. The Hoosiers hold a 2-1 all-time meet record against the Lions, but this year the Lions expect to come out of Bloomington with a convincing victory.

After that, the Lions (4-0, 1-0 Big Ten) will continue their voyage another 324 miles to race against Michigan in the Wolverines' home pool at 1 p.m. tomorrow. This is the first year the Lions have met the Wolverines in a dual meet.

"I'm pretty sure we can beat Indiana, and Michigan is very good. I think they're ranked in the top 10 right now, but I wouldn't be surprised if we beat them," Penn State team member Holden Comeau said.

Both meets are expected to be difficult. They mark the beginning of Big Ten competition, and the Lions will use them to gauge their ability to handle Big Ten matchups and to see how they fare at away meets.

"These are the meets of the season," Penn State swim coach Peter Brown said. "This is where we find out where things are at, where we can get a better sense of who we are."

Although the Lions are facing two consecutive tough competitors, they are confident they will be able to rise to the challenge and defeat both teams. The team is confident it will be able to deal well with the trials of two away meets in the same weekend.

"It is a question of how well we compete from start to finish, how well we deal with the road trip and other pools, and how well we compete as a team," said Brown.

The swimmers feel they are prepared for the challenge to make them a stronger team and to prepare them for the rest of the season.

In two weeks, the Lions will host Ohio State and Iowa, two more Big Ten challengers. This weekend will prepare them for those home contests. This weekend will also help the Lions prepare for the Big Ten Championships, to be hosted by Indiana the last weekend in February.

"This weekend's a good preparation for our Big Ten meet, too. It's a three-day meet and each day we have to consistently be at our best," said Comeau, a junior freestyler.

Michigan will be the better of this weekend's meets, having won 30 Big Ten team titles in the past. A 1-3 start has the Wolverines reeling, but they are still one of the tougher teams in the conference.

Both Michigan and Penn State should be additionally motivated because this is the first time they will race against each other in a dual meet. The Lions are curious to see how their whole team will come together to face their greatest challenges to date this season. The younger team members will get to experience a lengthy road trip while the whole team can see what it is made of.

"We've been working so hard to kind of make our way up and everything, that this is like a stepping stone," Comeau said. "This is sort of a milestone, where we're getting better and we can actually consider ourselves pretty good."