Stanford Women:
Greg Meehan will make his first dual meet appearance on the pool deck Friday as Stanford women’s swimming head coach at the Avery Aquatic Center when the Cardinal take on San Jose at 2:00 p.m. (PT).
The 16-event dual meet will pit a refreshed Cardinal team that finished fourth at the 2012 NCAA Championships against a Spartans squad which returns to the pool after claiming the program’s first Western Athletic Conference Championships title last season.
The meet will also be a first for assistant coach Tracy Duchac, who joined the Cardinal program after serving in a similar capacity last season at Arizona.
“This will be a great opportunity for our team to get back into the water and see where we stand after the offseason,” Meehan said. “We still have a long way to go, but I’ve been very proud of the way this team has been training and I’m excited to see how it reacts in a racing environment.”
Meehan, who was handed Stanford’s reins last month after holding the position of associate head men’s swimming and diving coach at Cal, inherits a program that claimed two conference titles, seven top-five NCAA finishes and a 66-5 dual meet record in the last seven seasons under former Cardinal head coach Lea Maurer.
While Stanford looks to replace the sprint tandem of Sam Woodward and Betsy Webb along with breaststrokers Jamie Bruce and Kerry Kraemer, it may not have to dig too dip into the bag as the Cardinal freshmen class features four top-50 recruits.
Freshman Sarah Haase, a national high school record holder who broke the minute barrier in the 100 breast will team with sophomore Katie Olsen to help fill the void left by Bruce and Kraemer.
Stanford also looks forward to the return of junior All-American swimmer Maya DiRado and junior All-American diver Stephanie Phipps.
Freshman diver Kelly Markle is set to make her collegiate debut after finishing ninth in the 3-meter synchronized event at the 2012 U.S. Olympic Trials.
Florida & Florida State:
The University of Florida swimming and diving team will open the 2012-13 season at home as they host the third annual All-Florida Invitational beginning Friday, September 28 and running through Sunday, September 30 at the Stephen C. O’Connell Center. The Gators will play host to seven different schools in Florida Atlantic, Florida Gulf Coast, Florida State, Miami, North Florida, Nova Southeastern and Rollins College.
The three-day meet will kick off Friday, Sept. 28 with prelims at 10:00 a.m. and finals beginning at 7:00 p.m. Both Saturday and Sunday’s prelims are set for 9:00 a.m. and the finals will take place at 4:00 p.m. each day. Diving events will run Friday and Saturday between the prelims and finals, starting no earlier than 2:00 p.m.
This weekend will be the third annual All-Florida Invitational. Each year, schools from around Florida come to participate. It will be the third year that Florida Gulf Coast, Florida State, Miami and Nova Southeastern have participated. Florida Atlantic and North Florida are competing in their second invite and Rollins College will be competing for the first time.
The Gators have topped the standings in each of the previous two All-Florida Invites and will look to continue their streak of top finishes. Last year, the women finished with 15 individual victories and five relay wins to secure first place and the men accumulated nine individual and four relay victories to finish first out of the nine teams participating.
The men’s squad has opened the 10 of the past 11 seasons with wins, while the women have won their season-opening meets since the program’s inception in 1972.
The men’s and women’s Florida State swimming teams will hit the road for their first test of the season. The Seminoles will compete in the three-day, prelim and final formatted meet at the All-Florida Invite, in Gainesville, Fla. starting on Sept. 28 and will run through Sept. 30.
“The test for us is to have that first competition,” head coach Neil Harper said. “You have to be good for six sessions. The great thing about this meet is that a lot of our kids are competing against former teammates from either high school or club. We’re going to get a good glance of what we have and how the athletes are responding to their training as well as whether they’ve got the energy and excitement to last for three days.”
The University of Florida will host six schools in addition to Florida State at the Stephen C. O’Connell Center Pool in Florida Atlantic, Florida Gulf Coast, Miami, North Florida, Nova Southeastern and Rollins College. Among the eight schools, the Seminoles will face five of the opponents later in the 2012-13 dual meet season.
Prelims on Friday will begin at 10 a.m. with finals to follow at 7 p.m. On Saturday and Sunday prelims will start at 9 a.m. with finals to start at 4 p.m. Top 16 finishers in each event with the exception of relays and the 1650 free will qualify for finals. Both relays and the mile are timed finals.
Big Ten Men:
The 2012-13 season of Big Ten men’s swimming and diving begins this weekend when Michigan State hosts Wisconsin on Friday at 5 p.m. ET. On Saturday, the Badgers travel to Ann Arbor to take on Michigan for a 10:30 a.m. ET dual meet.
Minnesota begins its campaign the following weekend, when the Golden Gophers travel to Michigan for a 5 p.m. ET meet.
Indiana, Northwestern and Penn State each begin their seasons on the road on Oct.19. The Hoosiers head to Lexington to take on Kentucky, while the Wildcats visit Eastern Michigan, and the Nittany Lions face West Virginia in Morgantown. Iowa and Purdue also open their seasons that weekend when the Boilermakers host the Indiana Intercollegiates and the Hawkeyes face Michigan State in East Lansing.
Ohio State takes to the pool on Oct. 26, as the Buckeyes welcome Cleveland State and Kenyon to Columbus at 6 p.m. ET.
Big Ten Women:
The 2012-13 season of Big Ten women’s swimming and diving begins this weekend when Michigan State hosts Wisconsin on Friday at 5 p.m. ET. On Saturday, the Badgers head to Michigan to take on the Wolverines for a 10:30 a.m. ET dual meet.
Minnesota begins its campaign the following weekend, as the Golden Gophers travel to Ann Arbor to face Michigan at 5 p.m. ET. On Oct. 12, Nebraska heads to Grand Forks to take on North Dakota and St. Cloud State.
Indiana, Iowa, and Penn State begin their campaigns when they hit the road on Oct. 19. The Hoosiers head to Lexington to take on Kentucky, while the Hawkeyes visit Michigan State, and the Nittany Lions face West Virginia in Morgantown. Illinois and Northwestern also hit the pool that day when the Illini welcome the Wildcats to Champaign at 4 p.m. ET.
Purdue hosts the Indiana Intercollegiates on Oct. 20, and Ohio State opens its season by welcoming Cleveland State and Kenyon to Columbus on Oct. 26.
Tennessee:
The Tennessee swimming and diving team officially opens a new era as a combinedmen’s and women’s program Friday with a dual meet at UNC Wilmington.
The meet begins at 3 p.m. at Seahawk Natatorium.
Tennessee and UNC Wilmington will also hold an open water competition on Saturday.
Matt Kredich, who served the previous seven seasons as the Lady Vols’ head coach, has been at the helm of the men’s and women’s teams since the programs were unified in April. Since then, Kredich has hired four assistant swimming coaches who will make their debuts Friday.
Diving coach Dave Parrington is back at Tennessee for his 23rd season and was inducted into the Greater Knoxville Sports Hall of Fame over the summer.
Recapping Last Season: The Lady Vols also opened last season at UNC Wilmington as well, earning a 194-105 victory against in the Seahawks as four Tennessee swimmers set pool records. The women’s program is coming off a banner season in which the team finished 6-1 in dual meets (3-1 in the SEC) and finished second at the SEC Championships and seventh at the NCAA Championships.
The Tennessee men went 3-3 overall and 2-2 in the conference in dual meets. The Vols were fourth at the SECs and 22nd at the NCAAs.
A Look Back at the Summer: Because it was an Olympic year, the Tennessee program was busy at work over the summer months. Seventeen current and former Tennessee swimmers competed at the U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials, and three divers took part in the U.S. Olympic Diving Trials.
The Tennessee program also welcomed Team USA to the Allan Jones Intercollegiate Aquatic Center in July for its domestic Training camp.
Senior Kelsey Floyd reached the finals in the 100- and 200-meter butterfly at the Olympic Trials before winning the 200 fly in 2:08.74, which was the third-best time by an American in 2012.
In diving, junior Tori Lamp continued to excel on the platform. The reigning SEC Diver of the Year finished fifth in the event at the Olympic Trials and dove at the U.S. Open Diving Championships to qualify for the international FINA Grand Prix series.
UNLV Women
The UNLV women's swimming and diving team begins the 2012-13 season with a dual meet at preseason Mountain West favorite San Diego State on Saturday morning at 10 am at the Aztec Aquaplex. SDSU was picked as the league favorite in the preseason coaches poll, just ahead of Boise State, while UNLV was picked third.
UNLV brings back three swimmers that set school records in 2011-12, all juniors. Rachel Dixon in the 50 free, Katelyne Herrington in the 100 fly, and Jessica Heim in the 500 free and 1650 free all set new school marks this past season.
The Aztecs are 1-0 in the year after a win over San Diego. Three Aztecs that set school records a year ago also return for this season for a SDSU squad that has won 39 straight dual meets.
UNLV will have a month off before hosting a tri-meet, along with the Rebel men's squad, against Arizona and Denver on Saturday, Oct. 27 at 2 pm in Buchanan Natatorium.
