Women’s Swimming and Diving
The Wisconsin women’s swimming and diving team will compete in the Big Ten Championships in Minneapolis beginning Wednesday.
The Badgers will look to improve upon last year’s fourth-place finish with the help and leadership of the Big Ten Swimmer of the Week, sophomore Ivy Martin.
“Ivy performed well at the NCAA Championships last year, and I kind of challenged her over the summer to parlay that into a great season moving forward,” head coach Whitney Hite said. “She’s done a great job. She’s really started to come out of her shell and mature as an athlete and as a person.”
Hite stated that the team was prepared for the challenge due to an intense schedule, including challenges at Michigan, California and Stanford.
“We’ve been put to the test, and that’s all by design to make sure that they’re ready for Big Ten and NCAA Championships,” Hite said. ”There’s going to be no surprises. We’ve seen the best teams, seen the best swimmers. We are prepared.”
Women’s Track and Field
The women’s track and field team is heading to the Spire Institute in Geneva, Ohio, to compete in the Big Ten Indoor Championships this Friday and Saturday.
The Spire Institute is the first ever off-campus location for the championships. Head coach Jim Stintzi noted the novelty and challenges the new site presented, particularly a 300-meter track.
Stintzi said the team is “looking forward to that opportunity to run some fast times and be in a new environment that will change the way the Big Ten meet is run, and may change it permanently.”
Stintzi went on to note the speed of the new track, saying that “if we don’t see all the records fall, we’ll see a lot of records fall, even in this one championship.” The Badgers placed sixth last year.
Men’s Track and Field
The men’s track and field team will also be headed to the Big Ten Indoor Championships in Geneva, Ohio, this weekend.
Head coach Ed Nuttycombe echoed Jim Stintzi’s sentiments about the speed of the Spire Institute’s tracks, while also noting the scenario of a neutral site. “Don’t know whether it’s good, don’t know whether it’s not good,” Nuttycombe said. “We’re going to go, and I guess we’re going to find out.”
When asked about expectations for senior Mohammed Ahmed, Nuttycombe stated that the senior is ready physically, but may not be as sharp as he could be due to taking time off for cross country.
“Physically, he’s 100 percent. Is he 100 percent in shape? Is he as sharp as he could be? Probably not, simply because of trying to take some time off,” he said. “It’s very difficult for those guys to be as razor sharp as they need to be [for] cross country, indoor and outdoor. It’s just hard.”
Nuttycombe was later asked how he thought the chips were going to fall with regards to the team race, for which he picked Nebraska simply because “they have more people in more areas than any of the other teams.”
Men’s Basketball
The men’s basketball team (9-4 Big Ten, 18-8 overall) registered a dominant win over Big Ten foe Ohio State Sunday and will visit Northwestern (4-9, 13-13) Wednesday.
“You go down there, and then the way they play their defense, it is different on their reads and the way they scramble,” head coach Bo Ryan said. “So, yeah, they are hard to prepare for that way, but you just get them ready.”
Ryan discussed the difference of Northwestern’s Princeton offense from past opponents when asked about preparations for the upcoming game, noting the importance of associate head coach Greg Gard and his work with the scout team.
“There’s no one that knows that offense better than [Gard] over the years,” Ryan said. “Any teams that ran any of that stuff, he’s the one that’s put it in with the scout team. I’m sure today and tomorrow, they’ll be running some good stuff. Now, Northwestern, obviously, does it every day, but we’ll get a pretty good look for the regulars defensively.”
Ryan also eschewed the idea of rankings and individual awards in college basketball when asked about scheduling.
“Individual awards, things like that, I’ve never been—I don’t fill out my ballot,” Ryan said. “I let the assistants do it at the end of the year. Individual awards to me mean absolutely nothing. That’s why I coach a team sport.”
