This Friday and Saturday at the Perkins Natatorium in Dallas, eight swimmers and one diver will represent the Wisconsin women’s swimming team at the SMU Classic. The Badgers are confident entering the meet after two huge victories against UW-Milwaukee and Big Ten foe Iowa.

“There is definitely some confidence here,” head coach Eric Hansen said. “[Our team] has shown that they can compete.”

After a 147-74 victory in the season opener against the Panthers, the Badgers moved on to defeat the Hawkeyes 206-92. UW took first in every event against Iowa.

“Everything is just flowing right now,” senior Jen Illescas said. “It’s just fun.”

Now the Badgers head to Texas to face five other teams in SMU’s annual Collegiate Swimming Classic.

“It’s a good competition,” Hansen said. “We’ve been down there for 10 years now.”

For the Classic, each team is allotted eight swimmers and a diver. For every swimming event, two entrants are allowed for each team. The Badgers’ representatives will be Illescas, senior Christine Zwiegers, juniors Candice Peak, Gabby Maddalena and Rosie Morahan, sophomore Maggie Meyer, and freshmen Beckie Thompson and Ashley Wanland.

At last year’s Classic, Wisconsin finished fifth. They were edged for fourth place by USC by a single point. Host SMU finished second, while Texas A&M took home the title.

Part of the confidence the Badgers have comes from the smooth transition from last season.

“It was amazing,” Hansen said. “This new set of girls is amazing. [The entire team] just got right to work. It was great.”

“We all got our hard work in right away,” Zwiegers said. “We’re getting it all done in the pool.”

That transition has definitely showed in UW’s performances in the first two meets of the season andcollegeswimming.com ranking Wisconsin at No. 23 in their first poll of the season, just one slot below the spot the team finished at last year.

But by no means are the Badgers content with this ranking.

“We’re definitely not satisfied,” Illescas said. “We want to win, obviously.”

At the same time, polls are not the gold standard in swimming, and most everyone around the SERF’s pool seems to recognize that.

“The more I’ve been around this sport, the more I know that you really can’t rank it,” Hansen said. “It’s been created out of (demand) and for the college swimming followers.”

“We’d like to do well,” Zwiegers said. “But we know that it’s just a piece of paper.”