Oct. 23, 2008
EVANSTON, Ill. -- Carrying a preseason top-25 dual-meet ranking in the year, No. 22 Northwestern opens its 2008-09 campaign at 2 p.m. CT Friday, Oct. 24, with a showdown at No. 8 Indiana at the Counsilman-Billingsley Aquatics Center in Bloomington, Ind.
The Wildcats have legitimate momentum coming into the season after finishing 19th in the nation at last year's NCAA Championships. Six of NU's eight NCAA participants -- including five All-Americans -- return for the 'Cats, who also added another deep and talented freshman class to its roster for this season.
The Wildcats will be led by sophomore Ellen Grigg (Charlotte, N.C./Charlotte Latin School), a returning first-team All-American in the 500 free. Also entering the year with All-America accolades to their names are junior Kassia Shishkoff (Raleigh, N.C./St. David's School) in the distance free and IM, junior Emily Wong (Nepean, Ontario/St. Joseph's) in the sprint freestyle, sophomore Teisha Lightbourne (Nassau, Bahamas/Peddie School (N.J.)) in the sprint freestyle and Liza Engstrom (Reno, Nev./Robert McQueen) in the sprint free and backstroke.
With a roster of 33 swimmers and divers, the Wildcats have depth like never before, which will help NU both in dual meets and at the Big Ten and NCAA Championships.
"We are excited to start off the new season against a very quality opponent like Indiana," head coach Jimmy Tierney said. "They have a great tradition in Big Ten swimming and diving and appear to be very strong again this year. We have a very young, inexperienced group so I'm not sure how ready they will be this early but we'll stand up and compete hard."
Indiana enters the meet with a 1-0 record after knocking off Kentucky to start its year. The Hoosiers earned a narrow 163.5-136.5 victory over the Wildcats in Evanston one season ago. Northwestern had a 6-4 dual-meet record in 2007-08, with all of its losses coming against ranked opponents.
"I think this meet will be a good springboard for both our swimmers and divers to see where we are and what we need to work on," Tierney said. "It's a long way to NCAA's and Big Ten's so we won't put too much stock in the outcome of the first meet. It's all about building character and learning how to compete against great competition."
The meet has been named a Meet of the Week by Swimming World Magazine, and as such it will receive front-page love at SwimmingWorldMagazine.com. Live results for the meet are available at IUHoosiers.com.