Oct. 15, 2009

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - The Fighting Illini swimming and diving team returns to action this weekend, traveling to East Lansing, Mich. to face the Spartans of Michigan State on Friday at 5 p.m. CT, before heading to Rochester, Mich. on Saturday to face the Oakland Grizzlies and Toledo Rockets in its first tri-meet of the season.

"It's going to be a good test for the team, having to compete in back-to-back days and having to travel within the two meets," head coach Sue Novitsky said. "This will be a good test to see how we respond and are able to recover and come back for the second meet. Hopefully we'll be able to keep the level of enthusiasm and competitiveness up."

The Illini defeated the Spartans, 199-154 in last year's meet as swimmers CeCe Marizu, Torrey Loper, and Kristen Kloeckener claimed event titles in the 200 back (2:03.68), 1000 free (10:28.93) and 200 free (1:54.23), while diver Britni Fisher recorded an NCAA zone qualifying score in the one-meter dive (275.03).

"Michigan State graduated good seniors, and has a big freshman class as it seems everyone does this year," Novitsky said. "They are a Big Ten team, and we want to go in there and see where we stack up."

The squad will head to Novitsky's alma mater on Saturday to take on host Oakland and Toledo, marking the seventh time in nine years that the teams have competed against each other. Two years ago, the Illini defeated Oakland, 194-104, but were beaten by Toledo, 183-115.

"Oakland gained a lot of good freshman this year, so that will be an interesting competition to see," Novitsky said. "We haven't competed against them in two years and they are a very solid team, and very well coached. Being the second day, we'll have to keep our focus going into that meet so that we don't let anything drop."

The Illini are coming off a 165-135 victory at Nebraska in their season opener last weekend, which included outstanding performances from Big Ten Diver of the Week, Lauren Wismer, who broke the school record in one-meter diving (290.47), Jen Ivarson, who finished first in the 100 fly (57.73), 200 fly (2:06.35) and the 200 individual medley (2:09.26), and Kristen Manias who won event titles in the 50 free (24.42), 100 free (52.93), and was also part of the winning 400 medley relay (3:56.51) and the 200 free relay (1:37.76).

While Novitsky is pleased with last week's performances, the team is still looking to improve.

"We're looking to be sharper than we were last week overall with our swims, and Chris (Waters) is looking for the same on the boards," Novitsky said. "Even though we've had some success, we want to keep improving ourselves as a team overall, keep trying to put the pieces into place."

For complete results and a recap of each meet, visit fightingillini.com.