Practice this week was light but focused as the University of Wisconsin women’s swim team prepares to participate in the Big Ten Championships
“We’re really excited,” senior team captain Jennifer Illescas said. “We had a team dinner, just to get together, talk about team goals, just to get really excited for (the Big Tens). We have so much energy. We’re swimming well; we’re just all on fire.”
The Badgers will need all the energy they can muster. The meet hosted at the University of Michigan’s Canham Natatorium this afternoon will last four days. This weekend, Wisconsin’s swimmers will face the 10 other women’s teams in the Big Ten, fighting to earn positions at nationals next month in Texas.
The distant goal of the National Championship races is at the forefront of the Badgers’ minds even before they get into the pool for the Big Tens.
“The Big Tens, for us, is a stepping stone to the real meet, the NCAA Championships,” coach Eric Hansen said. “That’s how we evaluate our season, off of (the NCAA Championship) meet. The Big Ten meet is a qualifying meet for that, so I don’t worry about anything but where we end up nationally.”
Before thinking about the National Championship, Wisconsin will have to first deal with formidable foes at the Big Ten Championship. Ranked 17th nationally and sixth in the Big Ten points standings, Wisconsin is looking up at five teams. Minnesota, ranked ninth, nationally, leads the Big Ten points column, followed by, in order, Michigan (ranked 22nd), Indiana (13th), Penn State (15th) and Northwestern (20th).
In addition, the Badgers just had an impressive 45 Big Ten dual meet win streak wiped away by their loss to the Golden Gophers. Despite beating Big Ten bottom-feeders Illinois and Purdue, Wisconsin wasn’t able to completely sweep the competition during the final regular season day of conference swimming. Minnesota took the meet 191-160, relatively close in the swimming world.
Despite the setback heading into a challenging meet, Wisconsin swimmers do not seem to be at all intimidated.
“We were really close to Minnesota the whole meet,” Illescas said. “They’re really tough, and to be that close to all of those top swimmers, I think it just motivated us. It just said, ‘Hey, look, we can beat them.’ I don’t think we took (breaking the win streak) as a bad thing. It was really cool because we learned something. We’ll be prepared for (the Big Tens).”
“You have to look at things from our point of view,” Badger senior and co-captain Christine Zwiegers said. “We would say that, as a team, we are doing really well, especially at (The Texas Invitational in December). We were really happy with what we did there, and I think we’re only going to get better at the Big Ten Championship. So, I think we’re exactly where we need to be.”
Wisconsin stands ready to shake up the meet with some explosive swimmers. Beckie Thompson, a freshman, makes her rookie appearance at the Big Tens, set to challenge her school record time of 22.25 seconds in the 50-yard freestyle. Zwiegers also hopes to improve upon her times, including her own school record of 52.90 seconds in the 100-yard butterfly. Maggie Meyer, a sophomore, is looking to repeat the first-place performance she had in Minnesota. All of the individual events will complement the focus on the relays.
“First and foremost, our focus will be on relays,” Hansen said. “After that, I think we’ve got some solid women in every event. Some events we may not be as strong depth-wise, but I think we have a strong swimmer in every event.”
Before concentrating on the NCAA tournament, the team is just looking forward to getting back in the water.
“I’m just looking to go in and have fun,” Illescas said. “It’s one of the last races I’ll have. It’s sad; I might shed a tear, but we’re all real excited.”
And, as important as the Big Tens are, Hansen made sure to reiterate his confident stance.
“Our focus will always be on the last meet of the season,” he said.
