West Virginia University Director of Athletics Shane Lyons announced today the 2015-16 schedule for the WVU swimming and diving squad.
This year’s schedule features seven home events at the WVU Natatorium, including the Gold-Blue intrasquad meet to open the season on Saturday, October 3.
“This is one of our best schedules in recent years,” said coach Vic Riggs. “We start our season with three weekends in a row at home, providing our teams great opportunities to compete. The quality of these teams to start our dual meet season is a great addition to our schedule.”
The Mountaineers partake in the West Virginia State games for the fifth consecutive season on October 8-9. The meet includes multiple in-state foes, including Marshall. This season, West Virginia hosts the event, which alternates between the Mountaineers and the Herd every year.
West Virginia participates in the first ever Big 12 vs. ACC weekend when the Mountaineers host Georgia Tech on Friday, October 16, and Virginia Tech on Saturday, October 17.
The squad closes out the first four weeks at home with the Big 12 vs. Big East Weekend when WVU will host Butler (women), Seton Hall and Xavier on Friday and Saturday October 23-24.
WVU closes out fall competition at the Tennessee Invite in Knoxville on November 20-22. In December, the USA Swimming Winter Nationals (December 2-5) and USA Diving Nationals (December 15-20) are set to take place.
“The Tennessee Invite and the Winter Nationals will be our top focus this fall semester,” noted Riggs. “These meets give our team’s top-level competition, as we enter the halfway point of the season.”
The team resumes action in the spring with a pair of nonconference events. The diving team heads south to Florida for the Coral Springs Classic on January 3 and the team resumes competition together against rival Pitt on January 9 in Morgantown.
Big 12 Conference action starts when WVU visits TCU in Fort Worth, Texas on January 16. Annual Senior Day festivities take place on January 29 when the Mountaineers host Villanova. Additionally, the women’s swimming and diving team will compete against Iowa State that day.
West Virginia visits Columbus, Ohio, to wrap up full team regular season competition against host Ohio State, Big Ten foe Michigan and Mid-American Conference member Buffalo. The diving Mountaineers take are scheduled to participate in the James Madison Invite on February 6 in Harrisonburg, Virginia.
“Starting our spring semester with a rival against Pitt and opening Big 12 competition will give us an incentive to compete at a high level,” Riggs said. “Wrapping up our dual meet season at Ohio State will give us an opportunity to compete against three strong teams, which will help challenge us as we enter the championship portion of our schedule.”
The 2015-16 Big 12 Conference Championships take place on February 24-27 in Austin, Texas.
