TERRE HAUTE, Ind. –  The Indiana State Swimming and Diving Team will host the Northern Iowa Panthers on Friday, October 22 at 6 p.m. at the Vigo County Aquatic Center.
 
Friday's meet marks the Sycamores second regular season home meet and first conference opponent ISU will host this season. The meet is also the second of three that Indiana State will host this season with the Sycamores welcoming Bellarmine and Eastern Illinois to a Tri-Meet on December 4.
 
"UNI always has a strong, well-coached team," ISU head coach Joshua Christensen said. "Like us, they've taken on a pretty tough schedule to this point. We had a competitive back and forth meet with them last year and we have a lot of respect for them."
 
Indiana State enters Friday's meet with an 0-3 record overall on the year with losses to Illinois, Indiana, and Kentucky this season. The Sycamores are coming off their first back-to-back meets on back-to-back days as ISU hosted Illinois and traveled to the Indiana Intercollegiate last weekend.
 
"It's the time of the season where you have to be putting in some significant training all week and still get up and race well," Christensen added. "We know we're going to get challenged and I'm excited to see how we respond. We'll definitely learn something about ourselves on Friday."
 
The Sycamores finished third out of the 12 teams that competed this past weekend in West Lafayette, Ind. at the Morgan J. Burke Aquatic Center. Indiana State put together 356 points over the 12 events on their way to the top-finish trailing just behind host Purdue (641.5) and Ball State (501.5).
 
Individually, Marni Gray, Chloe Farro, and Madie Rutan all posted top-three results in their events. Gray continues to excel with the Sycamores as the junior finished second in the 100-Yard Butterfly while also contributing in the 200-Yard Medley Relay. Freshman Chloe Farro finished as Indiana State's top performer in both the 50-Yard Freestyle (3rd) and 100-Yard Freestyle (2nd). Sophomore Madie Rutan took third place in the 100-Yard Backstroke for the Sycamores.
 
Event Schedule
400 Medley Relay, 1650 Free, 200 Free, 100 Back, 100 Breast, 200 Fly, 50 Free, 3M Diving (run concurrently with swimming), 100 Free, 200 Back, 200 Breast, 500 Free, 100 Fly, 1M Diving (run concurrently with swimming), 200 IM, 200 Free Relay
 
About the Opponent
Northern Iowa comes in with a 1-1 record so far this year with a win against Iowa and a loss against Iowa State. The Panthers have been led by strong diving performances on the year with Taylor Hogan and Abby Hutchins both sitting in the top-five in both the 1M and 3M diving events.
 
The Panthers have also seen success in the pool with top-five placements in the 200 Butterfly (Lily Ernst, 3rd) and 200 Backstroke (Amber Finke, 5th). UNI freshman Faith Larsen is also undefeated in the 50 Freestyle this year with wins over Iowa and Iowa State.
 
Last Time Against UNI
The last time these two teams faced off was March 6, 2021, when ISU traveled to Northern Iowa. The Sycamores took the 162-138 win in Cedar Falls, Iowa with ISU breaking three pool records in the meet. Indiana State's relay teams set two of the records in both the 200 Medley relay (1:44.91) and the 400 Freestyle relay (3:30.17) events. Marni Gray broke the record for the 100 Butterfly at the event with a time of 55.94.
 
Standout Sycamores
The Sycamores have a number of athletes currently sitting among the top in the Missouri Valley Conference this season heading into this weekend's meet.
 
Chloe Farro has turned in the fourth-best times in the MVC this season in both the 50 Free (23.91) and 100 Free (52.30), while Carmen Alard Vegas put together the fourth-best time in the 50 Back (26.65) in the opening Indiana Tri-Meet. Vegas (56.90, 3rd) and Madie Rutan (57.08, 4th) have also turned in two of the top-four times in the conference in the 100 Back on the year.
 
Alexandria Cotter (30.99, 3rd) posted the third-best time in the 50 Breast in the meet against Illinois, while Marni Gray is back among the conference leaders in most the Butterfly events. Gray is second in the 50 (26.49), first in the 100 (56.56), and sixth in the 200 (2:08.40).
 
The Sycamores have turned in the top seven results in the 100 IM this season with Kaimi Matsumoto's 1:00.59 pacing the conference in the event. Cotter is tops for the Sycamores in both the 200 IM (2:09.02, 4th) and 400 IM (4:31.66, 2nd).
 
The Sycamores divers are also in the mix with strong results on the season from Keara Shelton and Sarah Montgomery.
 
Follow the Sycamores
For the latest information on the Sycamore Swimming and Diving team, make sure to check out GoSycamores.com. You can also find the Sycamores on social media including, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Fans can also receive updates on Sycamore Athletics by downloading the March On App from the both the App Store and the Google Play Store.