Terre Haute, Ind.—ISU swimming and diving will travel to Iowa City, Iowa to compete in their first Missouri Valley Conference Championships.

The 2016-2017 season was the inaugural season for the program and welcomed a group of all freshmen student-athletes to compete under the direction of head coach Matt Leach and assistant coach Rebecca Westfall.

Indiana State has faced off with all different levels of competition this season and taken each one in stride. The Sycamores were victorious in three meets, but competed strong and set new school records every week.

On Feb. 15 through Feb. 18 the squad will get the chance to face off with all of their conference opponents, some for the second time this season.

"The team has been preparing very diligently for the MVC Championships!  Our team understands that we have been building and preparing for this meet all season and hope to show great improvements at the championship meet.  Right now our energy levels are beginning to come up, our times are starting to come down which means we are on the right track," said Leach.

ISU has been diligently preparing for conference throughout their entire season. Coach Leach has stated multiple times that this meet was always the one they were building up to. Over winter training the Sycamores worked hard and their efforts and improvements have shown through.

On Jan. 14 ISU faced off with the Butler Bulldogs as their first meet back from winter training. The Sycamores came out strong and were relentless in their pursuit for victory. ISU came out on top defeating Butler 143 to 107.

"I know that once you get to the conference meet anything can happen, so we are going to try and educate our athletes on the timeline, order of events, awards ceremony and all the little nuances that come along with a championship caliber meet.  We are all excited to get there and represent our families all over the country, each other, our program and most importantly or Sycamore Family!" said Leach.

Earlier this week the MVC released the Pre-Championship Coaches Poll. The results of the poll are listed below.

Pre-Championship Coaches Poll
#1 Missouri State: 48
#2 Southern Illinois: 43
#3 Northern Iowa: 35
#4 Illinois State: 28
#5 Little Rock: 19
#6 Evansville: 16
#7 Indiana State: 7
 
 
The Sycamores were ranked in seventh coming into the meet as the only first year program and squad of all freshmen, but the results have not effected ISU.

"As the pre-championship poll comes out, we are going to be focused on the meet and not what the preseason poll, pre-championship poll shows.  Our goals coming in remain the same, set high academic marks in the classroom, grow as a team, create a championship culture and perform at our conference meet.  I feel like we are in a great position going into conference and we will see how it all plays out.  It's going to be a lot of fun and we are ready to be in Iowa City to compete," said Leach.

Indiana State has previously matched up with Southern Illinois, Evansville and Illinois State, but will be competing against the others for the first time.
The MVC Championships will take place from Feb. 15 through Feb. 18. Follow along at gosycamores.com or mvc-sports.com.

Go Sycamores!