The University of Minnesota swimming and diving program has announced its schedule for the upcoming 2015-16 season. In addition to their annual events, the Golden Gophers will also host a home dual meet against Florida.
The annual Alumni Meet will open Minnesota’s season. The meet is slated for Friday, Sept. 18 at 6 p.m. at the Jean K. Freeman Aquatic Center. The night will include the induction of this year’s honorees into the Minnesota Aquatics Hall of Fame.
Minnesota’s first official competition of the season will be on the road against Florida State in Tallahassee.
The Maroon and Gold’s lone home dual will follow on Saturday, Oct. 10. The Gophers look to “Pack the Pool” against Florida, and the event will include giveaways and other promotions.
The Gophers will open Big Ten Conference competition in Madison, Wisconsin, in a border-battle with the Badgers. Following two road meets against North Dakota (Oct. 23) and Iowa (Oct. 30), the Jean K. Freeman Aquatic Center will play host as the first stop on the Arena Pro Swim Series by USA Swimming (Nov. 12-14).
The annual Jean K. Freeman Invite will be contested Dec. 4-5 in Minneapolis and will feature several area collegiate teams along with the Golden Gophers.
Minnesota will focus on training as the swimmers head to Honolulu, Hawaii, for practice. They’ll take on the University of Hawaii (Jan. 9) before heading to a quad meet in Denver, Colorado (Jan. 15-16).
The Golden Gophers will head to Northwestern (Jan. 29-30) for a Big Ten Conference triple dual to round out January competition.
Coming off an unprecedented fourth-straight Big Ten title, the Gophers will head to Michigan for the 2016 Big Ten Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships (Feb. 17-20).
The Minnesota men will compete a week later in West Lafayette, Indiana, at the 2016 Big Ten Men’s Swimming and Diving Championships (Feb. 24-27). The Gophers finished sixth at last year’s conference showdown.
Both the Minnesota men and women will end their season in Atlanta as Georgia Tech hosts the 2016 NCAA Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships from March 17-19 and NCAA Men’s Swimming and Diving Championships on March 24-26.
Last year was highlighted by two NCAA Champions, Kierra Smith and Yu Zhou, on the women’s squad. Breaststroke swimmer Smith will take the upcoming season off from collegiate competition to train for the 2016 Olympics and is set to return for her senior season in 2016-17. Zhou will return to the diving well for Minnesota after being tabbed NCAA Diver of the Year in 2015. On the men’s side, diver Matt Barnard took home a bronze medal at the NCAA Championships and will be a junior for the Gophers this fall.
