Mustangs Kick Off Season With Swim Classic
Oct 20 | Women's Swimming & Diving
Oct. 20, 2006
DALLAS (SMU) - The women's swimming season officially gets underway this weekend as the No. 7 SMU team hosts the SMU Swim Classic, Fri., Oct. 20- Sat. 21. The event will take place in Perkins Natatorium on the campus of SMU. Besides SMU, the Classic will feature Alabama, No. 14 Florida St., LSU, Virginia Tech and No. 13 Wisconsin.
The 13th annual Swim Classic is a competition that allows a nine-woman squad (eight swimmer and one diver per team) from each of the six teams to compete in the two evening sessions beginning at 7:30 p.m. both nights. There are no preliminary heats, only bonus and championship heats. The meet will feature two diving events, the one-meter competition on Friday and the three-meter on Saturday night.
At the 2005 Classic, SMU toppled top-ranked Florida for the sixth overall Classic title in 12 years and posted a 12-point win, which was the second closest margin of victory in Classic history.
"At our Women's Swim Classic, we have five excellent teams coming in," head coach Steve Collins said. "They are new teams, but all are national programs and schools that people will recognize as strong athletic departments. It's going to be great competition."
Schedule of Events
Friday, Oct. 20
200 Medley Relay
400 IM
200 Free
100 Fly
One-Meter Diving
100 Back
100 Breast
50 Free
800 Free Relay
Saturday, Oct. 21
200 Free Relay
500 Free
200 Back
200 Breast
Three-Meter Diving
100 Free
200 Fly
200 IM
200 Free Relay
There will be live scoring available both nights and live video on Saturday night. Follow all the action at www.smumustangs.com where there is a Classic Central link on the front page.
The Mustangs head coach Collins is on the horizon of his 21st season at SMU. The 2005-06 season launched a new era for SMU as they transitioned into Conference USA. At the conference championship, the women's swimming and diving team rewrote the record books, continuing a decade of dominance the squad notched its 11th consecutive conference championship. The Mustangs set 14 Conference USA meet records en route to the title, then went on to place seventh at NCAA, their 15th top-10 finish in Collins' tenure. Eleven Mustangs earned All-American status, eight of which will be returning this year.
"We are really excited about this season," said Collins. "We have a great group that is returning from last year's team. We were very pleased to win the conference and be in the top-10 at NCAA's with a seventh-place finish, which is one of our highest finishes."
