Nov. 29, 2007
NORMAL, Ill. -
With a 6-1 dual-meet record, the Illinois State swimming and diving team will look t continue its early-season success, when the Redbirds travel to Akron, Ohio, to compete in the Zippy Invitational Friday through Sunday. After finishing fourth last season, the Redbirds will travel to the Oliver J. Ocasek Natatorium in hopes of walking away champions.
This marks the seventh-consecutive year of competing in the Invitational for the Redbirds. The team finished first in 2005 and second during its first time competing in 2001. The invitational features 10 women's teams, including host Akron, Bloomsburg, Buffalo, Clarion, Duquesne, Ohio, Niagara, Shippensburg and Xavier.
ISU Head swimming and diving coach Steve Paska is looking forward to seeing how his team will compete.
"The swimmers and divers know the importance of this meet," said Paska. "It is a culmination of our fall semester, and we have been preparing for this event all season. With the preliminary and final format this meet has, the newcomers will have a taste of how the (State Farm) Missouri Valley Conference (Championship) meet will go. I am looking forward to seeing how the newcomers and returning team members will respond to the challenge this weekend."
Paska feels that this is an important invitational for the team to compete in.
"Akron runs a first-class meet," said Paska. "In the past seven years, there have been some very close races, and there is a good competitive balance in the water and on the boards. It is fun to look back at the archives and remember the good times the team has had in the past (at the Akron Invitational). The newcomers to the team have been important to our success this season, and I look forward to seeing how they, and the returning members, will compete at this level."
With intense competition, Paska feels the Redbirds need to be mentally tough.
"We need to visualize past performances and prepare mentally," said Paska. "It will be a challenge for the team to stand up to the mental aspect of competing Friday, Saturday and Sunday. We have the goal of trying to get as many swimmers to have a second swim in the finals, and they will have to perform well in the morning to accomplish this. This meet is about the opportunity of having the chance to perform in an environment that the team is not used to competing in."
Head diving coach Phil Hoffmann is also looking forward to competing at the level that the Akron Invitational offers.
"I am looking forward to one of the two meets (the Akron Invitational) we have been focusing on all year," said Hoffmann. "We have a good lead into our championship season, and I look for Katie (Janonis) to continue her senior leadership. This will be the first time the whole team has come to a meet together. There will be a lot of good divers competing, and it will be good for them to get an idea of this format prior to the conference championship meet. It will be good for the underclassmen, especially Corrie (Heine), to experience a big meet and dive multiple days in a row. This will help us prepare for and work on things in the next few months leading up to the conference championship meet."
