The IUPUI men's and women's swimming and diving teams released their 2014-15 schedule today that features nine home meets, including the annual House of Champions Invitational in November and the 2015 Summit League Championships.
The men's squad is coming off a second-place finish in the Summit League last season and returns 18 members from last year's roster. Amongst those 18 returners are eight all-conference performers, including 2014 Summit League Diver of the Year Cody Watts.
The women's team placed third in the league a season ago and welcomes back 15 athletes from last year's team. More than half of those 15 athletes were all-league performers, including four members of this year's senior class in Natalie Trout, Margaret Barber, Alexus Laird and Jennifer Oleksiak.
"Every year presents a new set of challenges, but this year we also have to deal with some expectations," head coach Matt Bos said. "We have improved every year but the improvements made to this point were easy compared to what lies ahead of us. If we truly want to compete for a conference championship, we're going to have to push ourselves to a whole new level – but I definitely think both of these teams are capable of reaching their potential."
The season begins on Saturday, Oct. 4, when the University of Indianapolis, Butler and Wabash College come to the IUPUI Natatorium for a quad meet beginning at 10 a.m. Nearly two weeks later, the Jags will host Eastern Illinois on Oct. 17, before heading to West Lafayette, Ind., for the Purdue Intercollegiates on Oct. 18.
Following a two-week rest, IUPUI returns home for a tri-meet with Western Illinois and Saint Louis on Oct. 31, before meeting Western Kentucky in a dual meet on Nov. 1.
A road dual meet at Wright State will be the final meet prior to the Jags hosting their annual House of Champions Meet Nov. 21-23. This year, IUPUI will welcome 12 teams to the IUPUI Natatorium for the three-day event that will consist of morning and evening sessions each day.
A handful of student-athletes will participate in the U.S. Short Course Nationals Dec. 4-6, but that will serve as the final meet until competitive action resumes on Jan. 9 when Ball State and Xavier make their way to Indianapolis.
That kickstarts a second semester in which the Jags do not leave the city of Indianapolis. Following its meet with the Cardinals and Musketeers, IUPUI hosts Wisconsin-Green Bay and Wisconsin-Milwaukee on Jan. 15 and 23, respectively, before participating in the Butler Invitational on Jan. 25.
A little more than three weeks later, the Summit League Championships will again be held at the IUPUI Natatorium from Feb. 18-21.
