Matt Bos Weekend Preview
CHARLESTON, Ill. – The 2013-14 IUPUI men's and women's swimming and diving seasons begin this weekend when the Jaguars travel to Summit League swimming foe Eastern Illinois on Friday, Oct. 25, before taking on the Panthers and Illinois-Chicago on Sat., Oct. 26.
Saturday's meet against EIU and UIC will be scored as a standard dual meet, while Friday's meet will be more of a combined, relay scored event.
"It's just time to get up and race and see what we've got. We're doing a little twist – Friday is going to be a combination of mixed relays and some gender specific relays along with some 50's of the stroke events – and we're going to do an overall combined score," head coach
Matt Bos said. "Saturday's more of a traditional double-dual meet with UIC as well. With [Eastern Illinois] being a conference team, we want to go there and show what we've been working on and put our best foot forward."
Both the men's and the women's teams were recently picked to finish in a tie for second place in the Summit League Preseason Poll after both teams earned their highest finish since 2006 at the Summit League Championships a season ago.
On the women's side, the Jaguars return six all-conference performers from a year ago in
Alexus Laird,
Jennifer Oleksiak,
Margaret Barber,
Madison Taylor,
Natalie Trout and
Peyton Zehner. Oleksiak comes into the season as the reigning Summit League champion in the 200 breaststroke and she became the first IUPUI swimmer to claim an individual title since 2005.
The men's team welcomes back four All-Summit League performers in
Tony Carroll,
Alex Rhoda,
Rich Sunkel and
Cody Watts, but the Jags boast a lot of young talent on the roster this season. Including Sunkel, 20 of the Jaguars' 27-man roster are freshmen and sophomores and of the seven upperclassmen, the Jaguars have just one senior in
Andrew Saunders.
Following this weekend, the Jaguars will host their first home meet of the season Nov. 8-9 when it welcomes Valparaiso and Butler on Friday, Nov. 8, before hosting Wright State on Nov. 9.
