Nov. 10, 2011

EVANSTON, Ill. -- After opening the season with a pair of Big Ten meets on the road, Northwestern kicks off its home schedule this weekend with a pair of competitions at the Norris Aquatics Center.

NU first welcomes conference foe Wisconsin at 5 p.m. CT Friday, Nov. 11, before UIC and North Dakota come to town for an 11 a.m. CT double-dual Saturday, Nov. 12. Both meets will be combined men's and women's competitions.

The Wildcats began the season with a resounding 199-101 win on the road at Illinois before falling to an always tough Purdue squad last weekend in West Lafayette. This weekend marks the first two of three-straight home meets; Northwestern will host its traditional TYR Invitational Nov. 18-20 to close out the fall quarter schedule.

Northwestern and Wisconsin have split the last two dual meets between the programs. In 2009, the Wildcats charged back to claim a 14-point victory over the Badgers with a 1-2-3 sweep of the 400 IM. Wisconsin won in Madison in the 2010 match-up between the squads.

Northwestern junior Felicitas Lenz (Altadena, Calif./Polytechnic School) is undefeated on the diving boards on this young season. Coming off a successful World University Games appearance for her native Germany this summer, Lenz won the Big Ten Diver of the Week award following dominating sweeps of both springboards against the Illini. She remained perfect by sweeping both boards at Purdue, which is a traditionally strong diving program.

Friday's meet will be personal for one of Northwestern's top freestylers, Jackie Powell (Madison, Wis./James Madison Memorial). Hailing from the hometown of the Badgers, Powell was recruited by UW before choosing to come to NU where she currently is NU's top freestyle sprinter. She also has dabbled in distance free events this year with some success.

Northwestern will be testing a brand new live results system this weekend with the goal of providing live times from the Norris Aquatics Center for meets in the future. Once functional, the link will appear on the NU schedule page and master schedule at the bottom of the NUsports.com home page.

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