Oct. 31, 2014
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – With an intense week of fall break training in the rearview mirror, the University of Notre Dame women’s swimming and diving team gets back to action at 1 p.m. Saturday at Rolfs Aquatic Center, as the Irish welcome in perennial rival Purdue for a dual meet.
“Purdue is a rivalry meet,” interim head coach Tim Welsh says. “They are an in-state team and they run an upscale, classy program. I’m always proud on both sides (ND men’s and women’s teams) to race against Purdue because they do things well and they do things right.”
Over the last four years, the Irish have dropped all four meets against the No. 24 Boilermakers, but three of the losses have come by 11 points or less. The closest meeting was a 152-148 Purdue win at Notre Dame two years ago.
While snapping the losing streak to the Boilermakers would certainly be satisfying, Welsh is concentrating more on the continued improvement the team is making in practice daily.
“What we are looking for is simply improvement,” Welsh says. “It’s been a month since our first dual meet against Michigan State. We are back in our own pool a month later. So from my prospective, have we improved?”
Since their last competition on the road two weeks ago at Georgia Tech and Auburn, the Irish have had two full weeks of training with one of those weeks being Notre Dame’s fall break.
“The advantage of fall break is that it’s one of two times all year when we can train without school work, tests and late nights,” interim head coach Tim Welsh says. “We can train and get the proper amount of sleep. So it’s an ideal training week for us and we took advantage of that to train very hard here. The translation was that at the end of the week, people were very tired. So in terms of how it prepares us for Purdue, it might actually slow us down. But in the long run it will make us better. I thought in the course of the 10 days since fall break began we have made some significant strides in the way our student-athletes were training. So I’m very encouraged by that and I think that’s an optimistic look into the future.”
Notre Dame (2-3) boasts dual wins over Michigan State (182-118) and Vanderbilt (152-142) so far this season, but fell to Georgia Tech (157-143), South Carolina (180-120) and No. 8 Auburn (192-102) in a recent southern road swing. While on the road, senior Emma Reaney notched an NCAA B cut in the 100 breast, while divers Allison Casareto, Emma Gaboury and Lindsey Streepey locked up their spots at March’s NCAA Zone C qualifier.
Purdue (2-1) bested Miami (Ohio), 199-94, to start the year, and also holds a victory over Cincinnati, 246-53. The Boilermakers’ lone loss came at the hands of Big Ten rival Ohio State, 165-134.
Fans in attendance and at home can follow the meet through the live results link on UND.com or by downloading Meet Mobile on their smart phone.
Women’s Order of Events
1. 200 Medley Relay
2. 1,000 Free
3. 200 Free
4. 100 Back
5. 100 Breast
6. 200 Fly
7. 50 Free
8. 1-M Diving
9. 100 Free
10. 200 Back
11. 200 Breast
12. 500 Free
13. 100 Fly
14. 3-M Diving
15. 400 IM
16. 200 Free Relay
NCAA B Cuts
Emma Reaney – 100 Breast
NCAA Zone C Qualifiers (Diving)
–Russell Dorn, Assistant Media Relations Director
–ND–