The Iowa men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams head to South Bend, Indiana, this weekend to compete in the Shamrock Invitational. The meet is the penultimate event for the Hawkeyes before their championship season begins, starting with the Big Ten meet.

The Iowa men want to move their winning streak to three this weekend. Wins in the Hawkeye Invitational and at Northwestern have the Hawkeyes riding a wave of confidence.

“That [Northwestern] win gave us a great confidence boost, and the team is ready to race even faster going into this weekend,” senior Charles Holliday said. “The energy was great last weekend, and everyone had high expectations for his performances. We want to bring more energy to the pool this weekend.”

Iowa has its work cut out for it; among the other squads, Notre Dame is ranked No. 40 in the nation, according to CollegeSwimming.com.

The Hawkeye men are training for the Big Ten Championships on Feb. 24, and they are running low on tune-up opportunities in the pool against other opponents. Iowa’s final meet before Big Ten’s will be next weekend at home against Western Illinois.

Senior Jackson Halsmer said the team realizes how important this weekend is in getting ready for championship season.

“We’re excited for Notre Dame,” he said. “It’s a hard meet, but it’s a great opportunity for us as a team to work on the fine details and do a final tune-up with Big Tens just a few weeks away.”

The Iowa women will have their hands full as well, taking on several squads including Notre Dame, which is ranked No. 37.

The Hawkeyes will look to get back on track after a disappointing loss to Northwestern. Iowa only managed to win four events against the Wildcats on Jan. 23, two of those coming from junior Emma Sougstad.

Sougstad is a member of two Iowa relay teams that have broken school records this season. Sougstad, senior Olivia Kabacinski, and sophomores Nikol Lagodzinska and Carly O’Brien broke the 400-free relay school record. The medley-relay record fell to Sougstad, sophomore Meghan Lavelle, freshman Kelly McNamara, and Kabacinski.

The focus for the Iowa women this weekend is the same as the men. The Shamrock Invitational is an opportunity for the women to fine-tune certain things to get ready for the Big Tens and the NCAAs, when all the swimmers need to be on top of their game.

That being said, the Hawkeyes expect to come home from South Bend with a win.