This season, the UW women's swimming and diving team has set some lofty goals, most of which come on the national level.

But the No. 17 Badgers, still ranked behind three other Big Ten squads (No. 8 Indiana, No. 10 Michigan and No. 15 Penn State), have some bragging rights on the line this weekend against their conference foes.

Wisconsin is set to compete in the Big Ten Championships Thursday through Saturday at the University of Minnesota Aquatic Center in Minneapolis.

UW head coach Eric Hansen has maintained over the course of the past month that his team's goals center on the national meet, which will take place right back at the Aquatic Center next month.

"As always, our ultimate goal will be to improve on our NCAA finish," Hansen said. "So we look at the Big Ten championships somewhat as a qualifying meet to get us to the ultimate, which is the NCAA championships."

Last year showed the Badgers don't necessarily need a great showing at the conference tournament. Wisconsin finished in sixth place at the Big Ten meet in Columbus but came back at the NCAAs in Athens, Ga., and with a ninth-place mark earned the program's highest finish ever.

"We were real happy with that, but we all feel that we have a better team this year," Hansen said. "The amount of work and their consistency has been phenomenal.

One of the hardest-working Badgers is sophomore sensation Yi Ting Siow, who has twice competed in the Olympics for Malaysia. It didn't take long for Siow to make her mark on the Big Ten and NCAA, as she made the finals of three events — finishing fifth in the 200 yard individual medley, sixth in the 200 breaststroke, and 12th as part of the 800 freestyle relay — at the 2006 national meet.

"She's probably the most talented athlete we've had in our program. And her versatility is amazing as well," Hansen said. "But for a freshman to show up and be able to final in three events is phenomenal. I look at her as being the Big Ten Freshman of the Year last year and the Big Ten Swimmer of the Year, but the Big Ten doesn't let us hand that out."

While Siow has a few years left as a Badger, senior Susan Johnson is looking to finish her career strong. Johnson, a five-time All-American, will be competing on each of Wisconsin's relays at the conference championships.

"Once again, her versatility is just amazing," Johnson said. "Those are the type of girls that we recruit, and Susan has led this team, along with (junior) Jackie Vavrek, to a place where we really feel confident that we can be better than we've been."

Siow and Johnson have already qualified for the NCAAs in certain heats, but are looking to put themselves in the best position possible for a national championship.

"Their consistency in training is really how they lead, and it's been quite remarkable this year," Hansen said. "We're all excited to see where it ends up."

Hansen and Johnson had conflicting views when it came to directly matching up with other marquee Big Ten teams such as Indiana or Michigan for the first and only time this year.

"I think the more you get to know our sport … it's actually a great thing for us to be able to focus at the national level because we have that level of a team," Hansen said. "I look at the way we match up at the NCAA championships, that's your highest level of athlete. "Even though we were sixth (in last year's conference meet), we were the best Big Ten team in the end," Hansen continued. "And I think in the end is where it counts."

"We're definitely looking to race Indiana, Penn State, who we haven't gotten to race this year," Johnson said, via phone interview from Minneapolis. "Seeing how we compare to them is pretty important to us; we think that we can match up pretty well, and hopefully we can reach for the team title."

Whatever the attitude about this weekend, the Badgers recognize the importance of performing well at the conference meet, and how much it can help them reach their ultimate goal.

"We look to come together as a team, have our relays score very high," Hansen said of the Big Tens. "In terms of the NCAA championships, we were ninth last year, which was the best that we've been.

"We're looking forward to taking the next step there, and we feel we can."