The UW men's swim team returns to the Natatorium at 5 p.m. Friday to host No. 9 Michigan in its second of three home meets this season.
The No. 16 Badgers (3-1, 1-0) return to action after last weekend's loss at No. 6 Arizona. They last faced Michigan (1-0, 0-0) in a dual meet in 1995-96 and have not defeated the Wolverines since 1980-81. Michigan holds a 41-5 series advantage.
Wisconsin boasts a strong senior class including Olympian Adam Mania, as well as Eric Wiesner and Tim Liebhold, both of whom earned Big Ten Swimmer of the Week honors earlier this season.
Head Coach Eric Hansen sees the team making progress every day. He noted, however, that the young swimmers need to contribute for this team to rise to the next level.
"Right now our seniors are probably 100 percent of our scoring potential at the NCAA Championships," Hansen said. "We need it to be different than that … we need to develop around them."
Hansen thinks his team will be strong in nearly every race Friday. Both teams feature top competitors.
Leading Michigan will be junior Peter Vanderkaay, an Olympic gold medalist in the 800-meter free relay. Vanderkaay won Big Ten co-swimmer of the year last season and helped the Wolverines capture a fifth place finish at NCAAs.
First year Michigan coach Bob Bowman's squad also features a talented freshman corps and the Big Ten's reigning 200-yard backstroke champion, Chris DeJong. DeJong switched races for the Wolverines' opener, but could swim beside Liebhold in the event this weekend.
"I missed some time with an injury so I still feel like I'm a week or so behind where I'd want to be," Liebhold said. "That said, I think I'm in a good place anyway."
The Badgers' first diving class in years will also gain more big meet experience this evening. Four freshman, including Big Ten Athlete of the Week Josh Bonner, allow UW a chance to better compete against top schools.
"Our new diving class brings a ton of energy to a place in our program that we haven't had much of," Hansen said. "We don't just give away 40 points in a dual meet now."
Hansen does not set any numerical goals for the meet, but will judge the team's performance based on technical breakthroughs, especially by those younger swimmers developing around the senior class.
The Badgers will strive for the win against an elite program with 11 national titles to its credit. At the same time though, team members point out that the objective is to perform well through improvement.
"I think we have to just go in and get everything we can out of it," Liebhold said. "If we win that's great, but as long as we make progress of some sort — that's the main goal."
Hansen's focus will be on grooming this team first and foremost for the NCAA Championships in March. He believes them capable of developing into a team at least as good as last year's, championship-wise. The Texas invite December 2-4 should provide a good reading, he said.
