Men's Swimming Gears Up To Face No. 4 Michigan
11/17/2005 12:00:00 AM | Swimming and Diving
Nov. 17, 2005
EAST LANSING, Mich. - The Michigan State men's swimming and diving team travels to Ann Arbor, Friday, Nov. 18 to take on No. 4 Michigan at the Canham Natatorium. The 400 medley relay will kick-off the meet, hitting the water at 6 p.m.
"They are a very good team and have three fantastic seniors, but I think we can do fairly well," head coach Matt Gianiodis stated. "It would be nice to see if we could carry some of the momentum from last week. Secondly, it is going to be an opportunity to see how far or behind our relays are because they (Michigan) are really the benchmark of the league."
The Spartans had a strong showing in their last meet, taking No. 18 Notre Dame down to the wire a week ago in East Lansing. With three events to go, State was on top by a point, but the Irish were able to get a big point swing in the 500 free, edging the Green and White 122.5-120.5. Thus far, MSU has an overall record of 1-3 and are 0-2 against Big Ten competition.
The Wolverines return to the pool after a week of rest, in their first conference match-up of the year. U of M owns a record of 2-0, opening the season with wins over Eastern Michigan and No.11 Georgia.
MSU knows it has its work cut out; Michigan enters the meet having won 29 consecutive meets over conference opponents, including victories in 61 of the last 62 meets. The Wolverines last Big Ten defeat came against Indiana 106-137 on Jan. 29, 1999.
"We have no mis-givings about things, they are a strong team, but our goal is to be competitive." Gianiodis said. "We had a hard week of practice so it will be interesting to see how we react."
Looking ahead, the Spartan men's and women's teams travel to Columbus for the Ohio State Invitational Dec. 2-4.
