Women's swim fights top-25 pair By Sam Duwe Daily Sports Writer The fried Rice of last weekend was tasty, but Michigan swimmers have a hankering for something a little more filling for ending their regular season with - Wildcat kabobs and Lucky Charms. This feast of champions won't come easy for Michigan coach Jim Richardson and the women swimmers of his dynasty, who easily handled Rice last Saturday. The Wolverines, who are ranked eighth in the College Swimming Coaches Poll, will meet No. 10 Northwestern and No. 23 Notre Dame on Friday and Saturday, respectively. "It's going to be a barn-burner!" Richardson said. Northwestern's squad features six all-Americans while Notre Dame has a perfect 9-0 record. Michigan beat both teams in dual-meet competition last season. Assistant coach Stefanie Kerska agreed with Richardson. "The swimmers are matched up across the board," Kerska said. "It should be a battle all the way from first place to fifth." Although Michigan wants to win these two meets for bragging rights, the Wolverines plan to take more home than a better ranking. "This weekend will be great preparation for the postseason championships," Kerska said. "We'll have two days of hard swimming, which can wear you out, but if we can successfully do it now, it shows that we can do it in Big Tens." This weekend will also mark a fundamental change in the way the team operates. "We'll finish with the hard training this week, but because Notre Dame is the final dual meet of the season, we'll taper the yardage down," Kerska said. "The girls are really looking forward to that, as we ready ourselves for Big Tens and NCAAs." This winter has been particularly rough for athletes, who have come down with strong strains of the cold and flu. Swimmers are particularly vulnerable to viruses that affect the lungs. "I would rather one of our swimmers get a stomach flu than one in the chest," Richardson said. "At least one in the stomach can go away quickly, where a bronchial infection can last weeks or months. In the water, breathing is everything." "We've been pretty healthy, no bouts with flu right now," Kerska said. "We better knock on wood, though." Originally on page 10A in the 1-27-2000 issue of the Daily.