CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Illinois Swimming and Diving head coach Sue Novitsky has announced the 2015-16 schedule, which includes three meets in home water at the ARC pool. The slate for the Fighting Illini this season includes home meets in two of the first three weekends of the competitive schedule, as well as a trip to Ann Arbor, Michigan, for the Big Ten Championships.
“Our coaching staff is really excited about the 2015-16 season and feel that this schedule will really test our team,” shared Novitsky. “We’re looking forward to getting back in the water as a group, and can’t wait to pick up where we left off last year in terms of making so many revisions to the record book.”
The first chance to see the Orange and Blue in action will be the intra-squad meet on Friday, October 2, in the ARC pool. Two weeks later (October 16), Novitsky’s crew will host a trio of in-state teams in Eastern and Western Illinois as well as Olivet Nazarene.
Illinois will get into Big Ten waters the following two weekends as the team heads north to take on Michigan State in East Lansing, Michigan on October 23, and then returns to Champaign to host Northwestern on October 30. The next day, Novitsky and company will make the trip to Carbondale, Illinois, to take on the host Salukis in addition to the Redbirds of Illinois State.
One week later, the Fighting Illini will pay a visit to Florida International in Miami, Florida. After a weekend off, the crew is set to compete in The Big Challenge swim meet in Topeka, Kansas. A couple weekends later (December 4) the Illini will head to the Iowa Invitational.
Following a pair of winter training trips, the Illini will reunite as a whole and head to Ames, Iowa, to go up against Iowa State on January 15 before making a stop in Iowa City to take on the Hawkeyes the next day. Illinois will see how they stack up against Nebraska on January 23 out in Lincoln, Nebraska, prior to heading down to Arkansas a week later to close out the regular season.
From Wednesday, February 17, through Saturday, February 20, the Big Ten Championships will be hosted in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The Last Chance Meet is slated for the next weekend in West Lafayette, Indiana. Less than two weeks later, the NCAA Zone Diving Championships will also be hosted in West Lafayette before everything wraps up in Atlanta, Georgia, from March 17-20 at the NCAA Championships.
Throughout the season, updates on the Illinois Swimming and Diving team can be found on FIGHTINGILLINI.com as well as social media platforms including Twitter, Facebook
Swimming news courtesy of Illinois Swimming & Diving.