MACOMB, Ill. - The opportunities for Western Swimming and Diving to prepare for the Summit League Championships are becoming scarce. On Friday the Fighting Leathernecks will travel to Iowa City for a dual with Iowa at 5 p.m. The Northern Iowa women will also compete at the meet. After the short trip back to Macomb, Western will host Valparaiso and Monmouth College at 1 p.m. to kick off National Girls and Women in Sports Day which will also include the Leatherneck women's basketball game with IPFW. All women athletic programs will be honored during halftime of the women's basketball game.
Six seniors will be competing in their final action as Leathernecks. Jeff Davis, Phil Kurz, Mike Regan and David Rilott for the men and Molly Carrignan and Alayna Colley for the women.
The last time out for the Leathernecks was a rough loss according to head coach Greg Naumann. Both the men and women suffered losses to a strong Wisconsin-Milwaukee program.
"Our meet against Iowa and Northern Iowa is going to be very tough," said Naumann. "Both programs have gotten much better and it's just up to us and go in and swim the best we can. As for Monnmouth and Valparaiso, this should be a much closer meet and should come down to the end. It will be our last home meet for our graduating seniors, and they are usually a little more hyped up for this, which means faster swimming."
"We are starting to rest a little bit more going into conference. For most of the season the team has been sore and tired and now is the time to start recovering from everything they have done all season long. We are pretty much focused on this year and finishing strong. We will look to next year when we are done this season."
"We have been hit pretty hard this year with injuries and illness, which makes it hard to say how they have done compared to my hopes and goals. The team has been able to train faster than they had last year but we will only know how good they have gotten once conference comes into the picture."
Stay tuned for a complete recap and results on goleathernecks.com.
