Iowa swimming and diving will send seven swimmers to West Lafayette, Indiana, to compete this weekend at the ACC/Big Ten Challenge.

The Hawkeyes will send two women and five men: sophomore Kelsey Drake, junior Hannah Burvill, freshman Mateusz Arndt, seniors Kenneth Mende and Jack Smith, and juniors Will Scott and Joe Myhre.

“We don’t have any lofty expectations for this meet; rather, we are going into it with the mindset that it will be a fun experience,” Mende said. “Two years ago, I competed at the USA/Big Ten swimming challenge, which had a similar format. So getting to know our competitors is something I’m looking forward to for this meet.”

This is an important meet for Iowa because it will be a preview of the times it will have to compete with to make it to NCAAs. Competing against tough competition such as this will help the Hawkeyes determine the ways they can improve before their peak meets.

“The biggest thing for us to take away from this meet is really getting to race a lot of fast people, being at a fast meet, and putting a race suit on this weekend in preparation for the Hawk Invitational next week,” Scott said. “I think it is going to be a big focus of just being mentally more prepared, so I think that is the big focus for us is working into that.”

The men who will travel are a part of the impressive relay teams that have earned national rankings.

The 200-free relay is ranked No. 9 in the country with a time of 1:20.30, and the 400-free ranks No. 16.

Myhre is ranked No. 11 in the country in the 50 free and No. 17 in the 100 free. The Hawkeyes definitely have the speed down — now, they just need to work on the little things to propel them further in the rankings.

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The Iowa men said they are happy with being fast and ranked, but the thing that makes the relay team more special than the time is the bond.

“We just want to keep working hard and do what the coaches tell us to do,” Smith said. “We want to keep being positive coming in and giving it our best efforts while being good friends. I think that’s the biggest thing that the four of us are really close as friends, too. The bond is already there for us, so it just comes naturally to swim fast for us.”

This meet is another good opportunity for both women — they will face some competition they will not see until the Big Ten meet. It will be a chance for both women to compete against Olympic-type times and figure out what they need to improve to compete in the NCAAs.

The competition will begin at 4 p.m. Saturday in the Burke Aquatic Center at Purdue. The full team will be back in action Nov. 15-17, when it hosts some tough opponents at the Hawkeye Invitational.