Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Swim Teams To Compete At Fall Illini Classic
11/08/2001 | 12:00:00 | Swimming & Diving
Nov. 8, 2001
Carbondale, Ill. - The Southern Illinois University Carbondale men's and women's swimming and diving teams will face some strong competition at the Fall Illini Classic at the University of Illinois on November 9-10 at IMPE Pool. The event begins Friday at 6 p.m. and will continue on Saturday at 9 a.m.
The Saluki men are coming off a 124-95 win over MVC rival Evansville last weekend and will swim against Missouri and Cincinnati at the Fall Illini Classic.
"Cincinnati has always been a great rival and the past couple years they've beaten us. I think we stack up against Cincinnati well this year. Missouri is strong on the top and they are deep, but I think we're deeper so we'll see what happens in this format," said Rick Walker, SIU men's swimming and diving head coach.
"It's more important for us to swim some new events and compete than to just win. We are deep in the distance freestyle and 400 IM so we'll swim some of those guys in different events. It's nice to win and that's a goal but we're trying to get ready for the MVC meet. We want to provide the team with quality competition on the way to the MVC meet so they are used to strong competition."
The SIU women will face host Illinois, Cincinnati and Missouri at the Fall Illini Classic after a 122-121 win over MVC rival Evansville last week.
"Illinois is a good team, Cincinnati is always very good on top and Missouri is a very powerful team with good sprinters in particular. We wanted to get into some tough meets to get the team ready for the MVC meet and this meet will challenge everybody," said Jeff Goelz, SIU women's swimming and diving head coach.
"We want to leave with some fast times and move some people around in different events to give everybody lots of opportunities. We're taking everybody and everyone will get a chance to swim. The win last week over Evansville was good for our team heading into this meet at Illinois."
