Indiana State Women’s Swimming & Diving, under the direction of second-year head coach Matt Leach announced today its schedule for the 2017-2018 season.
“The schedule we put together will not only challenge our young women, it will test our resolve to grow, be able to handle back to back meets, but also will prepare us for the MVC Championships,” said Leach.
Following an intrasquad meet on Friday, September 15 at 2:30 p.m. (ET) inside the Vigo County Aquatic Center, Indiana State opens their season on Sept. 30 traveling to face off with Missouri Valley Conference opponent, Illinois State at 1:00 p.m. The following day the Sycamores will go head to head with the Butler Bulldogs in Indianapolis, Ind. at 12:00 p.m.
Indiana State will continue their road stint at the Notre Dame Relays on Oct. 6 at 5:00 p.m. The squad will then hop on the bus the following day traveling to face off with Illinois-Chicago. ISU then heads to Champagne, Ill. taking on University of Illinois on Oct. 13 at 5:00 p.m. (ET).
The Sycamores’ first official home meet takes place on Oct. 14 at 2:00 p.m. welcoming Xavier and Olivet Nazarene for a double dual.
“Some new faces on our schedule will be UIC, St. Louis University and Xavier. When scheduling these programs, we wanted to challenge our student-athletes but also find ways to change up our lineup to see how our athletes are growing and competing in different events.”
On Oct. 27th the Sycamores hop back on the bus for another few weeks of travel. ISU will first take on Bellarmine at Rose-Hulman and then face off with Arkansas Little Rock at Evansville on Nov. 4. Finally ISU will travel to Cincinnati, Ohio for the Bearcat Invitational on Nov. 16-18.
The Sycamores will then take a couple weeks off for training before hosting the Indiana State Relay Meet on Dec. 2 at 6:00 p.m. welcoming various opponents.
Following this ISU will enter their winter training period, taking a month break from competition.
On Jan. 6 the Sycamores are back in the pool hosting Wittenberg, Wabash and DePauw at 5:00 p.m.
ISU will travel to face off with Ball State on Jan. 20 and then finish their regular season with conference opponent Southern Illinois on Jan. 27 in Carbondale, Ill.
The 2017-2018 MVC Conference Championship meet will take place in Iowa City, Iowa from Feb. 14-17. This will be the Sycamores second time competing in the championships.
“A few of the highlights of the season will be our conference dual meets against Illinois State, Evansville, Arkansas Little Rock and SIU. As a program we will always stay focused on our conference championships, but these dual meets will be a lot of fun for our young program. I look forward to these tough road dual meets,” said Leach.
Last season ISU placed seventh at the conference meet with Blanca Saez-Illobre and Jacquie Price earning MVC honorable mention honors.
This season ISU welcomes eight new student-athletes to the roster along with the addition of the diving program under direction of diving coach Fengting Chen. ISU has also promoted Bex Freebairn from volunteer assistant to assistant coach.
For the latest information on the Sycamore Swimming and Diving team, make sure to check out GoSycamores.com. You can also find the team on social media including Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Press Release courtesy of Indiana State Athletics.
