Owls Test American Waters For the First Time This Weekend

Rice will test the waters of competing in The American Athletic Conference for the first time this weekend as the Owls' women's swimming team opens their 2022-23 swimming schedule by hosting Houston and Incarnate Word in the annual Fall Splash at the Rice Competition Pool. The two days of action kick off on Friday at 4 p.m. and wrap up at 11 a.m. on Saturday.

The Owls are one of five C-USA schools that will compete as affiliate members of The American this year in advance of becoming full members of the conference in July of 2023.

Seth Huston welcomes back a squad that includes six past individual Conference USA champions (Shannon Campbell, Arielle Hayon, Maddy Howe, Amelia Kane, Imogen Meers and Zoe Spitz) as well as a talented incoming class.

While both Houston and Incarnate Word have already begun their seasons, Huston has held fast to his practice of starting his season in October.

"(I like) having a nice training block and starting to make some progressions before we up and race. I feel really comfortable with that. I feel like it works for us. I think there's a lot we can learn while we are training as opposed to getting and racing a little too early."

While the immediate assignment is the first competition of the season and the first official competition for Rice in The American in any sport, Huston's immediate focus is on the heightened level of competition the Owls will face at the end of February at the conference swimming championship.

"It is going to be a really challenging conference to compete in. There are nine schools and a lot of parity at the top. You can count and not have any fingers left (looking) at the teams that could compete to win a championship. The team has to do a lot of things right over the course of the year to be able to do that."

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