Swimmers Officially Open Season Friday Night At Boise State
10/7/2010 12:00:00 AM | Swimming & Diving
Oct. 7, 2010
The Rice swim team officially opens its 2010-11 season Friday (Oct. 8) with a two-day dual meet in Idaho against defending Western Athletic Conference Champion Boise State.
The Owls take on the Broncos at 7:30 pm Friday and at 1 pm Saturday (both Central Time). Rice returns a total of 15 letterwinners from last season's team that went 5-5 in dual meets and finished third at the Conference USA Championships.
Rice head coach Seth Huston, now in his ninth year at the helm of the program, stated that he has liked what he's seen of the Owls' preseason training and that after long hours of training the team is ready for an actual meet. He added that facing defending WAC champion Boise State in their home pool is, however, more than a tough task for a team's first meet of the year.
"We've had an excellent fall thus far," coach Huston said. "I have been really impressed with the workload and what they have been able to accomplish. Last week the 5K group (at the Open Water Swim) did pretty well. I thought Alison Godbe, Nicole Delaloye, Quincy Christian and Sarah Korellis swam really well.
"(Head Coach) Kristin Hill has done a great job building the Boise State program," Huston added. "They were WAC champs last year and will be tough to beat at home. We will need our freshmen to make significant contributions. We have more depth this season and that can have an impact on relays. I feel our relays are up for grabs (in the early part of the season) and definitely will be a work in progress."
Friday's portion of the competition is a 14-event dual swim meet. The teams then return Saturday for a schedule that features three traditional relays and, hang on to your swim caps, nine non-NCAA relays. Saturday's action includes an innovative list of events such as the progressive freestyle relay, the sprint-backstroke relay or the 4x100 individual medley relay.
Huston said that swimmers often get stuck on what they get in their individual times, and not competing. A day like Saturday helps the student-athlete re-focus.
"This relay format will give us an opportunity to race and compete, but not necessarily dwell on what their times are," Huston said. "It is early in the season and we will see plenty of traditional formats for most of the rest of the season."
The full schedule of events for both days is as follows:
7:30 PM Friday, Oct. 8
200 Medley Relay
1000 Freestyle
200 Freestyle
100 Backstroke
100 Breaststroke
200 Butterfly
50 Freestyle
1 Meter Diving
100 Freestyle
200 Backstroke
200 Breaststroke
500 Freestyle
100 Butterfly
3 Meter Diving
200 IM
400 Freestyle Relay
1 PM Saturday, Oct. 9
3 x 100 Butterfly
3 x 100 Backstroke
3 x 100 Breaststroke
800 Freestyle Relay
1 Meter Diving
500 Freestyle Relay (50-100-150-200)
400 Medley Relay
3 x 300 Freestyle Relay
4 x 100 IM
3 Meter Diving
3 x 50 Butterfly
3 x 50 Backstroke
3 x 50 Breaststroke
200 Freestyle Relay
(Meet Scoring: 9-4-3-2-1 individual events; 11-4-2 relays)
Players Mentioned
