Swim Team Announces 2015-2016 Schedule
6/23/2015 12:00:00 AM | Swimming & Diving
2015-2016 Rice Swim Schedule html
HOUSTON - A total of eleven regular season meets, including four on-campus at the Aquatics Center, highlight the new 2015-2016 schedule for the Rice Owls swim team.
A year ago Rice swimmers competed in the NCAA Championships and finished second in the National Collegiate Classic, a meet featuring NCAA Division I provisional qualifiers that taken on the nickname of the Swimming NIT.
The Owls open the 2015-2016 season on October 16 in sunny Miami, Fla., against defending Conference USA champion FIU, FAU and Miami in the Dual-a-Palooza meet. The Blue & Gray is then home the following weekend to host the annual Rice Invitational (Oct. 23-24). This year's field includes SEC power Arkansas, crosstown rival Houston and state foe Incarnate Word. The Owls are scheduled to compete against some of the best in the region and face strong opponents all the way through the 2016 NCAA Championships in March. The home schedule also includes meets against nationally-ranked Texas A&M, SMU and C-USA foe North Texas.
The competition focus then shifts to multi-team formats midway through the slate. Rice head coach Seth Huston, now starting his 14th season at the helm of the program, said a challenging schedule (that mixes some long-time rivals and new opponents) is by design.
"We have a great schedule this year," coach Huston said. "I'm excited to kick off the season in October at Dual-a-Palooza. We swim several invitational meets close to home that really help prepare us for the C-USA Championships. We are competing against some top ranked schools in the SEC, with Texas A&M, Arkansas and LSU (meet on January 29-30). Our winter training meet is against high-flying Florida Gulf Coast (January 3), a team that finished 26th in the nation last spring. We will have to step-up throughout the season if we are to be competitive with this schedule."
