University of Illinois
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The Big Challenge
Illinois Heads to Kansas, The Big Challenge
November 19, 2015 | Swimming & Diving
Fighting Illini Set for Six-Team Meet
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – The Fighting Illini Swimming and Diving team is back in the pool this weekend for The Big Challenge in Topeka, Kansas, from November 20-22. The Illini will face competition from Kansas, Iowa State, Nebraska, Nebraska-Omaha and Northern Iowa.
"We use [the time off] to assess where we are in our training and it allows anyone that may be a little banged up to recover," said head coach Sue Novitsky. "It was a great week of training for us and allowed us to get in a lot of work. The team trained very well and we're very focused in getting prepared for the Big Challenge this week."
Last time out, Illinois earned another victory with an impressive showing against Florida International in Miami back on November 6th. With the victory, the Illini improved to 7-1 on the season, which marks the best start since the 2010-11 season.
"This meet is going to be a lot of fun," shared Novitsky. "We get to race against some top-notch teams that are going to push us throughout the entire meet. This will be the first prelim/final format that we have competed in this season. When we head into the February and March it is important to have the ability to get yourself ready and allow yourself to recover over six sessions, plus potentially race multiple events in each session."
Scoring for the meet will be a little different than prior meets, as the Illini will be paired with Nebraska to represent the Big Ten and take on the Big 12 tandem of Kansas and Iowa State, as well as the Mid-Major pairing of Nebraska-Omaha and Northern Iowa. In addition to the conference competition, all teams will be competing against one another individually.
Following the Big Challenge, the Illini will travel to Iowa City to compete in the Iowa Invitational. Competition will begin on December 4th, at 8 a.m. CT.
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