Following a four-week break after their most recent meet against Princeton University, the Georgetown men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams travel to Rutgers on Friday and Saturday for a four-team meet. They will race against three Big East teams: Rutgers, Seton Hall and Villanova.

It has been an up-and-down start to the season for the Hoyas as they lost a pair of meets to Delaware and Towson earlier in the season. The Hoyas have been hard at work in the meantime, and hope to have a better showing this weekend when they face Big East competition for the first time this season. Head Coach James Holder is appreciative for the month-long break in between meets and believes it will improve the team’s performance.

“I think [the break] was good. [It] gave us some opportunities to focus on training. Swimming week in and week out gets to be a little taxing sometimes for the people travelling, so it was good to refocus on our team and get some good training in,” Holder said.

The Hoyas finished second in the Big East last season and are eager to establish themselves among the top programs in the conference. This year’s freshman class figures to play a key role in helping the team remain among the Big East elite, and they have already raced well early on in the season. Women’s diver Jenny Sullivan and swimmer Bailey Page and men’s swimmer Dan Ross have especially made an impact.

“Attracting a class of this caliber is a testament to the hard work our swimmers and divers put in each day and a great indication of our progress as a team. We have high hopes for this group of dynamic, well-rounded student-athletes,” Holder said.

The upperclassmen on the team have also taken notice, with senior women’s swimmer Jessica Gaudiosi giving high praise to the newcomers.

“The freshman class is very good. And there’s a lot of them. They all do different strokes, different distances, but I think they have really come in and shaped the team, kind of made us ready to compete as a whole, because we want to make sure they’re having fun and that we can live up to their expectations of us,” Gaudiosi said.

As the freshman class — the largest one Coach Holder has recruited to the program during his tenure — continues to develop, it will become a key piece of the team’s efforts. This weekend, Holder and the team will count on the freshmen against three conference rivals.

Rutgers (1-0) dominated in its first competitive dual meet of the season last weekend, earning a 168-112 victory over Wagner. The Scarlet Knights registered 13 first-place finishes out of 16 events to halt their opponents’ five-meet win streak.

Individually, senior captain Greta Leberfinger contributed three first-place finishes to Rutgers’ final total, including the 100-yard and 200-yard breaststroke and the 400-yard individual medley. Sophomore Alyssa Black placed first in both the 1-yard dive (229.64) and 3-yard dive (235.13).

Villanova (2-2) fell to No. 14 Penn State by a score of 156-101 in its last meet. The reigning 2014 Big East champion Wildcats tallied four first-place, four second-place and 10 third-place finishes.

Junior swimmer Fiona Hardie paced the team, claiming two individual top finishes in the 100-yard and 200-yard butterfly. Following her performance, Hardie was named Big East Swimming and Diving Athlete of the Week. Freshman Gabby Daigneault won in the 200-yard individual medley for her seventh individual win of the season.

Seton Hall (6-0) enters the weekend on undefeated and riding high. The Pirates defeated Providence 177-103, in their first home contest of the season. Seton Hall recorded 11 total event victories, including two relay and nine individual wins.

Leading the Pirates, sophomore Melody Bush tallied two first-place finishes in the 200-yard freestyle and the 200-yard backstroke. Bush was also a part of the 200 medley relay team that topped the field.

Georgetown is confident that the hard work it has put in at practice will put it in good position to get a win in its first meet of the season in New Jersey. Senior men’s captain Jamie Gallagher noted the importance of the meet for the team.

“This is always a big meet for us, it’s our first time swimming against Big East competition. So for us, swimming against Seton Hall and Villanova holds a little more weight than when we swim against an American [University] or a Towson [University]. They’re directly in our conference and we’re going to see them again in January and February,” Gallagher said.

Correction: This article previously stated that freshmen Bailey Page and Dan Ross are divers. They are swimmers.