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Auburn Releases 2014-15 Schedule

Six home events including the 2015 SEC Championships highlight the 2014-15 Auburn swimming and diving schedule, head coach Brett Hawke announced Wednesday.
 
“We’re excited about the new additions of Indiana and Missouri to our schedule. We were also able to add some old favorites back to the schedule in Alabama and Tennessee,” Auburn head coach Brett Hawke said. “We haven’t swam against those teams in a number of years and it will be good to compete against them once again. We’ve beefed up our schedule to make it exciting for our fans and help our team compete against strong competition throughout the year.”
 
The Tigers open their 2014-15 slate with Indiana in Bloomington, Ind., on Oct. 10. The meet marks the second all-time meet for the Auburn men against Indiana and the first since 1979, while the women will take on the Hoosiers’ women for the second straight season. Auburn’s women downed Indiana, 180-120, at the Notre Dame Tri-Meet a year ago.
 
Auburn’s women open the home schedule on Oct. 18 by hosting Notre Dame and Vanderbilt at the James E. Martin Aquatics Center. Last season, The Tigers knocked off Vanderbilt’s women, 158-44, to begin the season and dropped the Fighting Irish in their home pool, 180-120 to jump out to a 3-0 start.
 
The fall slate continues with a road tri-meet in Tuscaloosa as both the Auburn men and women take on Alabama and LSU on Nov. 1. Tennessee returns to the regular season schedule for the first time since 1995 as the Tigers will take the Volunteers in Knoxville on Nov. 14 and also face Louisville in the first-ever meeting between the schools in a tri-meet.
 
Auburn’s divers will participate in the Georgia Tech Diving Invitational Nov. 20-22 in Atlanta before rejoining the full squad to wrap up 2014 at the Georgia Invitational from Dec. 5-7 in Athens, Ga., at the Gabrielsen Natatorium. The Tigers’ diving squad will also compete at the Tennessee Diving Invitational, Jan. 2-4, 2015, in Knoxville, Tenn.
 
The 2015 portion of the schedule begins with a home meet against rival Texas on Jan. 9. The Tigers will also host conference foe Florida on Jan. 24, 2015 in the final home meet of the regular season.

“The meets against Texas and Florida always get us ready for championship portion of our season,” Hawke said. “Those are going to be two big home meets to start 2015.”
 
Auburn wraps up the regular season on the road at Missouri on Jan. 29, 2015 in Columbia, Mo. The meeting marks the first-ever men’s dual meet between the two schools, while the women will meet for the first time since 2003 in a tune-up for the SEC Championship meet.
 
The Tigers will host the 2015 SEC Championships which will take place Feb. 17-22, marking the first time Auburn has hosted the conference meet since 2009.  Auburn’s men finished second at last year’s meet and return SEC champions Kyle Darmody (100 back, 200 free relay, 400 free relay, 400 medley relay), Michael Duderstadt (400 medley relay) and Arthur Mendes (400 medley relay 400 freestyle relay). The Tiger women look to improve on their fourth-place finish from a year ago with All-Americans Megan Fonteno, Allyx Purcell and Jillian Vitarius returning from the 2013-14 squad.
 
“It’s always an honor and a privilege to host the SEC Championships meet in your backyard. We are hoping to fight for a championship on our home soil and pack the seats with our fans and alumni,” Hawke said.
 
Auburn diving coach Jeff Shaffer will take the Tigers to the 2015 NCAA Zone B Diving Championships, March 10-12. Senior Fraser McKean returns on the men’s side after earning his two All-America selections at the 2014 NCAA Championships.
 
The 2015 NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships for the women will take place March 19-21 in Greensboro, N.C. Auburn’s women finished 14th overall in 2014 at the NCAA meet and will look to jump back into the top 10. The NCAA meet for the men will be held from March 26-28 in the Iowa City. The Tigers finished in sixth place at last year’s meet and look to defend their title in the 400 freestyle relay.

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