Five meets in two days, and then a day of rest. That is what’s in store for the NIU swim teams this weekend.

The men start off on the road to Illinois Benedictine Friday for a 4:30 p.m. invitational, after which they must almost simultaneously be at Northwestern for a 7 p.m. dual meet.

The women, on the other hand, will remain in the waters of DeKalb all weekend, starting with their meet against the University of Missouri at 6 p.m. Friday.

After all is said and done, both teams will unite back at Anderson Hall Pool and celebrate their final home meet of the season—a.k.a. Parents Day—for a co-ed dual match against Eastern Illinois at 1:30 p.m.

Carrying their 4-3 dual meet record into Lisle and Evanston, men’s boss Dave Clark expects to place in the middle of the five-team Invitational and hopes to come out on top of the “equally matched” Wildcats.

In order to appear at both meets, Clark will send half of his squad to Illinois Benedictine, while he heads for Northwestern with the other half.

Clark said he expects standout performances this weekend from Steve Sanders and Mike Wheeler, along with the trio of Dave Talbot, Andy Flodin and Mike Godsted. As an additional plus for the team, diver Mike Sprehe is back in practice after a recent injury.

“We had our last real push-week work,” Clark said. “And I pushed.”

In women’s action, coach Mike Burt is more optimistic about the 4-6 EIU contest, opposed to the 1-6 Missouri challenge.

“They’re a tough 1-6,” Burt said. “They just may be lacking a little bit in depth, but I would like to win. With a weekend off and a little bit of practice this week, I expect us to swim better than we have all semester.

“Eastern’s schedule was not as tough as Missouri’s—in essence, Eastern is the weaker of the two teams. I don’t see (Eastern) presenting us with near the challenge we’ll have Friday.”