"No one works as hard as us day in and day out and has the talent to match it," said senior Sarah Haupt, who was part of last year's Big Ten championship team.
"We've tried to tell the younger girls how it was winning the championship last year. It was an unbelievable feeling."
The younger women seem to have been very receptive to the messages of their veteran teammates as they display the same kind of winning attitude.
"We're ready to go," freshman Kaitlin O'Brien said. "We're so fired up to just go to Ohio and race. We've put so much into this season to accept anything less than first place."
The team has been trying to take it easy in practices recently, resting as much as possible in order to be completely healthy and ready for the meet. It has been more than two-and-a-half weeks since their last competition, so the swimmers should be at full strength.
The prevailing thought throughout the season has been that, when healthy, this group of women has enough talent to beat anyone it faces. Nothing has changed going into this week.
Senior Amberle Biedermann remembers last year's experience of winning the Big Ten championship quite well, but she had to suffer through two near-misses -- a second and third place in previous years' meets -- before finally tasting victory. Having finally gotten over the hump last year, she is sure the team can do it again.
"Both of the years that we didn't win we knew there were things we could have done to win. I'll always remember that memory and that year," Biedermann said.
Head coach Bill Dorenkott's message to the team has been simple. He wants the women to remain calm and not put too much pressure on themselves. He especially does not want the young swimmers to be intimidated by the importance of the meet.
Biedermann doesn't think that should be a problem, though.
"They are all very experienced and they are all very good swimmers," she said of her teammates.
Even Penn State's freshman swimmers have competed at a national level before, so nerves may not be so much of an issue, but their first Big Ten championship is definitely a unique experience. Having their teammates to cheer them on should be a mental boost.
Because of the nature of the meet, events are far more spread out than usual. This should allow the women to watch everyone else swim their races and do what they've been doing best all year, working together as a team. If everything goes well, they may have the title of "repeat Big Ten champions" by Saturday.
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