A highly competitive dual meet awaits the ISU swimming and diving team in Champagne, Ill. on Jan. 16 at 4 p.m.

ISU swimming coach Duane Sorenson thinks the meet will be a back-and-forth battle.

“It’s going to be a great meet against them,” Sorenson said. “They are a lot like Nebraska, Kansas and Texas Christian. It’s going to be probably down to the last relay. We’ll win events and they’ll win events, and it will go back and forth.”

Sorenson mentioned that his teams haven’t done as well on the road in Illinois in the past, but they had a great meet this past season at Beyer Hall.

This point of the year is trying in college swimming, due to the fatigue of the season after winter training and all the work that has been put in.

“The swimmers are a little tired at this point in the season just because we have put in so much work,” Sorenson said. “The times won’t be quite as fast as they were at Iowa or at TCU, but they should be able to race against them and be very comparable.”

Elyse Brouillette, a captain and lead diver for the team, spoke on coming off the Tennessee Invitational, along with training over break, and what that does for their team moving into the rest of the season.

“It was a rough experience, but I think in the long run, it’s going to help,” Brouillette said. “It’s going to make us tougher and it’s going to make our endurance better.”

Coming out of winter training and an invitational-style event for his divers, ISU diving coach Jeff Warrick is ready for the quicker-pace action of a dual meet and the competition that comes with that.

“We’re just looking forward to the competition,” Warrick said. “I look at our training trip as a catalyst that sparks the final push to the end of the season. This is that first meet after that and so I’m looking for some really good performances.”