Champaign, Ill.: The Fighting Illini swimming and diving team head to Evanston, Ill. on Saturday to face Northwestern and the University of Illinois-Chicago. Competition is set to begin at 11 a.m. CT at the Norris Aquatic Center. The Fighting Illini come into this weekend with a 1-0 record and 4 divers recording personal bests at Indiana State. 

Head coach Sue Novitsky heads into this weekend with great optimism. She said, "We are looking forward to another opportunity to compete against some good teams. We want to keep building on our strong foundation from last week and look for some of the changes that we have been working on at practice." 

LAST TIME OUT

The Illini last faced competition on Friday, October 15th at Indiana State, coming out with a 184.5-98.5 win against Indiana State. Brooke Michael and Allison Landis recorded personal bests in both diving events, Molly Yetter placed first in both the 100 and 200 freestyle, and Lily Olson picked up two first place finishes of her own with wins in the 50 freestyle and the 200 butterfly.

SCOUTING THE WILDCATS

Northwestern goes into this weekend 0-1, their last competition versus the #11 Indiana Hoosiers on October 16th, falling 175-125. 

The Fighting Illini last faced Northwestern on February 6th, 2020 and fell 251-49. It was in this meet, however that Abigail Cabush broke the school record in the 200 freestyle with a time of 1:47.90, only to break it again a few weeks later in the Big Ten Championships with a time of 1:47.80.

SCOUTING THE FLAMES

The competition this Saturday marks UIC's first non-exhibition meet of the 2021-22 season. In 2020-21, the Flames had a 2-2 record overall and finished second in the Horizon League Swimming Championships.

The most recent matchup between the Illini and UIC was on October 12th of 2019, the Fighting Illini winning the meet with a score of 207-92. Senior diver Taylor Shegos came out with a top score in the 1m diving competition with a score of 278.80.

EVENT LINEUP

200 Medley Relay

1000 Freestyle

200 Freestyle

100 Backstroke

100 Breaststroke

200 Butterfly

50 Freestyle

3 Meter Diving

100 Freestyle

200 Backstroke

200 Breaststroke

500 Freestyle

100 Butterfly

1 Meter Diving

200 Individual Medley

200 Free Relay