The Iowa women’s swimming and diving team will face the Rutgers Scarlet Knights at 2 p.m. today at the Campus Recreation and Wellness Center. This is the team’s last competition before both the men’s and women’s teams compete at the Minnesota Invitational in early December in Minneapolis.

“We’ve got another strong Big Ten team coming in. We were just happy to be able to lay out these talented teams coming in for the women,” head coach Marc Long said. “They’re a great team, and they’ve got to be ready to step up and race and dive well.”

The meet will be Rutgers’ first competitive action since they cruised to a first-place finish in a three-team contest, defeating Seton Hall and Rider University in Piscataway on Oct. 11-12. The Scarlett Knights won all 19 events of the meet.

Meanwhile, the Hawkeye women have already been pitted against Big Ten powerhouses Minnesota and Michigan.

Although Iowa came up short in both duals, the team has shown steady improvement throughout the early-season contests, most recently hanging with the conference-leading Wolverines for most of the competition last week in Iowa City before falling by a final of 173-127.

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“We’re really excited, because it was good for the girls to stay that close to Michigan for most of the meet when they’re one of the top teams in the Big Ten, so we raced the best,” Millie Sansome said. “This is going to be a tough meet, but I reckon we can beat Rutgers.”

The Hawkeyes currently hold a dual meet record of 2-2 as they have defeated Northern Iowa and another conference foe Michigan State.

The women also competed at the SMU Classic in mid-October, taking fourth out of six teams in Dallas.

Today’s contest will cap off three-straight weeks where the women have competed at a high level against some of the conference’s toughest teams.

“Knowing how we’ve performed over the last couple of weeks, I think we’re all looking forward to stepping up again for the third week,” Hannah Burvill said. “It’s going to be tiring but I think we’re all excited for it.”

This season has been especially kind to the Hawkeye divers as both Sam Tamborski and Jayah Mathews have each been named Big Ten Diver of the Week at least once this fall. Tamborski earned the honor on back-to-back weeks on Oct. 9 and Oct. 16, and Mathews was recognized on Nov. 6.

Both Tamborski and Mathews have scores well enough to qualify for zones at the end of the season in both the 1 and 3-meter events. Mathews posted a season-best score of 322.20 in her 1-meter victory last Friday against Michigan. Tamborski also recorded a season-best against Michigan, but hers came in the 3-meter event, which she won with a 341.55.

Last season, four Rutgers athletes earned bids to the NCAA championships, had a dual meet record of 6-3, and finished first in three of their invitationals last year. Today’s contest will be Rutgers’ first dual against the Hawkeyes since the Scarlet Knights joined the Big Ten in 2014.