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The Illini return to ARC pool to face Iowa on Saturday.
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Jan. 15, 2009
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - The Fighting Illini return to Champaign this weekend to host Iowa in their first home meet since last fall. The action will begin at 11 a.m. on Saturday, Jan. 17 at ARC pool. The Illini look to display the results of their training trip efforts against the Hawkeyes and defend their 4-0 dual meet record.
"The meet against Iowa is going to be a challenging one," head coach Sue Novitsky said. "Iowa has been competing well all year and our competitions in the past have been hard fought contests."
Prior to Saturday's action, Iowa will face Western Illinois on Jan. 16. In their last competition on Jan. 10 the Hawkeyes took second in a quad-meet against FIU, Purdue and Florida Atlantic in Miami, Fla. Top finishes for Iowa came from senior Ashley Dell, junior Kuczek and sophomore Katarina Tour. All three women took first in their individual events which included the 1,000 free (10:21.92), 100 free (52.44) and 100 breast (1:05.73), respectively.
"The team is looking forward to the opportunity to compete again at home and against some strong Big Ten competition," Novitsky said. "With the increase in intensity in our training we are looking to see improvement in our sharpness in the pool and on the boards as we keep progressing towards peaking at the end of the season."
Last weekend the Illini finished fourth in the Indiana Invite against top-ranked Indiana, Michigan and Tennessee. Strong performances for the Illini came from senior Marissa Clapp and junior CeCe Marizu. Clapp took a third place finish in the 200 breast with a time of 2:18.80 while Marizu finished sixth in the 200 back (2:04.10) and seventh in the 100 back (58.22).
A full recap of Saturday's events will be available on fightingillini.com at the conclusion of competition.
