Rice Swimmers Announce 2011-2012 Schedule
8/1/2011 12:00:00 AM | Swimming & Diving
Aug. 1, 2011
View the 2011-2012 Rice Swim Team Schedule
HOUSTON - A total of fifteen regular season meets, including each of the first three on-campus at the fantastic Aquatics Center, highlight the new 2011-2012 schedule for the defending Conference USA champion Rice Owls swim team.
The Rice swimmers will host several high-profile/nationally-ranked programs, compete against the best in the region, and travel to one of the elite collegiate meets on the west coast before the regular season schedule concludes in March (2012) at the NCAA Championships in Auburn, Ala. The Owls begin the defense of last season's 2011 C-USA title in front of home fans.
The Blue & Gray open the schedule with a home dual meet against nationally-ranked C-USA rival SMU on Oct. 15. Rice is back home again the following weekend (Oct. 22) against a nationally-ranked Miami-Fla. team that the Owls also hosted last season. The Hurricanes thought so highly of Rice's Aquatics Center that the ACC power offered to make a rare return road trip for a second-straight year.
On Oct. 28-29 Rice is home for a third-straight weekend with two-day invitational meet that will showcase the Owls' home facility to no less than four national-caliber opponents. A powerhouse lineup of Nebraska, Arkansas, Boise State and crosstown rival Houston join Rice for the debut of what could prove to be one of the top collegiate meets in the country this fall - Holiday Inn Hotel & Suites Houston Medical Center/Rice Invitational. That meet closes out a stretch of three-straight weeks at home, all against elite competition.
Clearly, the word is out in collegiate swimming about Rice's home venue. It helped Owl head coach Seth Huston bring in this year's top competition, just as it no-doubt helped him recruit the caliber of student-athlete that won the 2011 conference championship. The back-to-back C-USA Coach of the Year, who is now in his tenth season at the helm of the program, explained that facing the best competition (home or away) has long-been part of his scheduling philosophy.
Coach Huston has always lined-up the Owls to swim in high profile meets. He just couldn't schedule meets like that at home. That has now changed.
"Swimming outdoors in our beautiful fall weather is attractive, and we have an awesome facility to compete in," Huston said. "It will be good for our program to have these meets at home, but our first month of competition will be tough. We are competing against a lot of ranked programs.
"Our Invitational will host Top 25 teams from Boise State, Arkansas, Nebraska and University of Houston," he added. "When teams travel, particularly early season, they want diverse competition and a different experience. We have that, plus a meet format that has the full lineup of championship events for our teams to swim early in the season. We look forward to the challenge of diving right into our competitive season."
Rice has a solid home slate, but that's only the first portion of the schedule. In November the Owls head north compete at state rivals TCU and North Texas, before traveling across town for UH's Cougar Invitational. The Blue & Gray is on the road for a meet at nationally-ranked Texas A&M on Dec. 3 before heading into semester finals.
The Owls have meets at both the start and close of the program's winter training session. The team is in San Antonio on Dec. 17-19 for The Holiday Invitational. Rice opens the new year in California for meets at San Diego State and the University of San Diego on Jan. 6-7, 2012, respectively. That's good news for the family and friends of six Owl swimmers on this year's team who are California natives.
"We try and get out to one of the coasts over our holiday breaks from year to year," Huston said. "It has been a while since we competed in California and I knew we could get some great meets in out there. It gives our west coast families a chance to watch an in-season meet or two.
Rice will be in Austin Jan. 13-16 for the annual Texas All-America Grand Prix. The Owls then face nationally-ranked LSU and C-USA rivals Tulane and Houston in a four-team showdown to be held at UH on Jan. 27-28. The UH Quad meet provides a critical last look before all the C-USA schools go-head-to-head in the conference championships on Feb. 15-18. The C-USA Championships will again be held across town at the UH Rec Center Natatorium. The college swim season concludes with the NCAA Championships Mar. 15-17 in Alabama.
Where facing ranked opponents is consistent across the entire schedule, the end of the season is where the real prizes are - the C-USA and NCAA Championships. Last year Rice swimming had its eye-on, and won, the C-USA crown.
"A valuable portion of our schedule is that we will be competing in two different three-day championship-format style of meets," Huston said. "I think that really helps prepare our team for C-USA Championships and later on at NCAA Championships. We will always be looking to make progress over the course of the season even if our early record does not reflect it. That's what happened last season.
"We want to have a great year from start to finish, but the end of the year is always where we to hang our hat."
View the swim team's full 2011-2012 schedule at the above link.