Men's & Women's Swimming & Diving Faces Drury College
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Nov. 14, 2002
Carbondale, Ill. - The Southern Illinois University men's and women's swimming and diving teams will face Division II powerhouse Drury College in a dual meet on Saturday, November 16. The meet will be held at Breech Pool at 2 p.m. in Springfield, Mo.
The Saluki men (2-2) beat Drury (3-0) 134-91 in a dual meet in Carbondale last season. SIU head coach Rick Walker expects a close meet with Drury, a team that finished third at the NCAA Division II Meet in 2002.
"This is a meet that can go back and forth. Drury has better athletes than they did last year when they finished third in the country in Division II. We swam them last year before they added some good athletes. They can win the meet if we don't swim well. We intend to go in and swim well and get a win," added Walker.
"They're good in the middle free and distance events and the IM. We have to continue to progress as a team. We have a nice rivalry with Drury and we respect their program. They want to beat a Division I school so we have to swim well to win."
The SIU women (1-4) beat Drury (2-1) 121-107 in a close dual meet last year. Drury went on to finish second at last year's NCAA Division II Meet. SIU head coach Jeff Goelz expects the meet to be close once again.
"Drury is always a great meet for us and we match up well with them. They're always in the top two or three in the nation in Division II and every time they get a chance to beat a Division I team they step it up a notch. They are a heck of a team so we'll have to go in and race hard or we could be in trouble," said Goelz.
"They are strong in the sprint freestyle and that's one of our weak spots. We'll have the advantage in the longer stroke events and the longer freestyle events. We have to perform at a high level to win this meet."