Coming off a weekend of many dominant performances, the WKU swimming and diving team looks to continue that effort into this weekend, as the men and women will split up with the Hilltoppers taking on Purdue on Friday while the Lady Toppers have a tri-meet in Nashville, Tenn., on Saturday.
The men’s squad will face the Boilermakers in West Lafayette, Ind., at 4 p.m. CT while the women compete against Tulane and Vanderbilt beginning at 11 a.m. CT.
“Purdue is a great Big Ten program,” WKU head coach Bruce Marchionda said. “They have a great facility that they had NCAAs at a number of years ago. They are very, very good. We are looking forward to going up there and being competitive and race some of the best swimmers in the world. So it will be good to go up there and see where we are at that level, at a national level.
“Tulane continues to get better every year. They are going to be a real challenge for us as well as Vanderbilt. We are going to have to get up and race; we are going to have to be good. We are going to have to do as well as we did last week if not better.”
Marchionda called last week’s performances against IUPUI and Indiana a step in the right direction for this team. WKU women’s took a 163-125 win over IUPUI while the men won 197-100 over the Jaguars and 180.5-99.5 against another Big Ten foe in Indiana.
“We had a number of swimmers get up and swim very good in-season times,” said Marchionda. “Hopefully we are going to take that and keep moving forward as we go into this weekend because this weekend is going to be very challenging for both men and women.”
A pair of Lady Toppers put their names as the fastest times in Conference USA after last weekend’s meet. Nadine Laemmler has the fastest times in the league after finishing the 100 back in 55.65 and the 200 back in 2:00.43. Hannah Musser also tops the list with times of 55.07 in the 100 fly and 2:01.33 in the 200 fly. WKU ranks first and second in the 200 medley relay as well with times of 1:43.53 and 1:45.47 against IUPUI.
The men also fared well against tough competition, as Fabian Schwingenschlogl posted a trio of individual wins, including the 100 (56.06) and 200 breast (2:03.50) as well as the 200 IM (1:53.39). Cody Reul and Seth Musser had two top finishes each, as Reul took the top spot in the 200 (1:41.68) and 500 free (4:37.48) while S. Musser repeated in the 100 (50.45) and 200 back (1:51.16).
For all the latest news and information on WKU swimming and diving, visit WKUSports.com or follow the program on Twitter via @WKUSwimDive and @WKUDiving and by liking the team on Facebook through WKU Hilltopper Swimming and Diving.
College Swimming News courtesy of WKU Swimming and Diving.