The Flames will be back in the pool Friday and Saturday for a two-day, triple-dual meet at UIC Natatorium.  Cleveland State and IUPUI will be in town for the third installment of the annual showdown between the three Horizon League rivals.

The meet follows a break from competition that afforded UIC time to train in Florida for a week.  It starts an intense, four-week stretch of meets before the final break before the conference championships.

"December is always a great month of training for us," Tim Loeffler said.  "We had about 4 weeks of hard training and now we are really starting to focus on getting ready for conference starting this weekend with our meet against Cleveland State and IUPUI.  They are two great rivals for us and this is always a great meet.  We spread out the competition between two days with different events on each day, so our kids are able to spread out into some different events.

"This meet in particular has given us kind of a goal at the end of our training camp of something to look forward to get back racing again."

The scores between the three teams have been quite close in each of the last two years, and Loeffler expects similar excitement this weekend.  "These three teams are ranked second, third, and fourth in the Horizon League," he pointed out.  "We will get a great idea of where we stand and what we need to work on between now and conference."

The meet will start at 5 pm Friday and 11 am Saturday.  Admission is free.

Last Time Out

• Five Flames swam in the US Open Championships last month.  Michael Tegeler led the way by qualifying for the C final in the 200 back.
• Danny Sivak, Hunter Crook, Luke Hutchinson, and Ben Gabbey also participated in the elite event.
• In the last team competition, UIC finished fourth (men) and fifth (women) at the IUPUI House of Champions before Thanksgiving.
• The Flames finished ahead of the other Horizon League squads, including IUPUI and Green Bay, at the meet.

Flames to Watch

• Lilly Culp has the team's best times of the season in both butterfly events and the 200 IM.
• Poleena Kovalaske leads the squad in the sprint free and 100 breast events.
• Christina Neri has the Horizon League's best results to date in the 1000 and 1650 free.
• Kyle Lewarchick qualified for one A final and two B finals at the House of Champions.
• Hutchinson made two A finals, and Sivak made three, at IUPUI.
• Cydney Liebenberg has won the 3-meter diving event at every meet so far.  She has two first place and two second place finishes on the 1-meter board.
• Felix LaFortune has been in the top two in every diving event of the season.

Scouting the Opposition

• Cleveland State has gotten back to competition already in the new year, losing a dual meet to Miami (Ohio) last weekend.
• Six Vikings have conference-best times in individual events.
• IUPUI's men's team will not compete.  Their women will also be racing for the first time since the House of Champions.
• This weekend's action will be the Jaguars' first dual meets against Horizon League competition.