The Iowa women’s swimming and diving team is looking to improve this year after a difficult postseason, and hope to boost their season through focusing on their tough schedule.

With one dual meet in the books, a 185-111 loss to Michigan, the swimmers are remaining positive. This is due to the fact that the Big Ten looks to be fairly stacked and is certainly one of the strongest conferences in the nation this year.

Seven Big Ten teams recorded points in last year’s NCAA tournament and of those, several are expected to be ranked in the first CSCAA poll, which comes out in the next few weeks. Minnesota, Indiana, Wisconsin, and Ohio State will all likely be top-20 teams. Of those four, Iowa will go head-to-head against both Indiana and Minnesota, the two best teams in the conference.

With that kind of opposition, focusing has become a major theme for the swimming and diving team.

“We’re all kind of more focused than last year, especially at this point,” senior Lindsay Seemann said.

Seemann has already made an impact this year, finishing runner-up in both the 200-free and the 200 back on Sept. 27. She also has several school records and is one of the best swimmers on this year’s squad. In addition, she was the black and gold’s top scorer at the Big Ten Championships last season.

Another of the Hawks top swimmers, junior Becky Stoughton, feels that this team might be closer together than ever this year. For her, that relationship is key to getting to where they want to be as a team.

“We have a common goal and we keep it in mind,” Stoughton said. “Since we spend so much time with each other, we all know what it takes to reach that goal.”

The former Big Ten freshman of the year is a UI record-holder in eight events and looks to continue her spectacular run this year.

Coming up, the Hawks have their annual Intrasquad Meet on Friday, an event where the swimmers draft their teams and then compete against each other. The event is team-based and has always been well received by the team.

While that may be for fun, a difficult conference schedule looms after. Michigan State, Minnesota and Nebraska take up much of late October and early November. In addition, Iowa coach Marc Long has also made a point of scheduling some difficult dual meets to complement the regular season schedule.

“[It] will prepare our team for peak performances during the Big Ten and NCAA Championship Season in February and March,” he said.

Those extra duels are highlighted by the Hawkeye Invitational, a three-day event in December that will bring some very respectable teams to Iowa City.

No matter the competition, the team has goals and will do what it takes to achieve them.

“We’re ready to go,” Stoughton said, “We’re more focused than ever.”