Swimming and Diving to Host Club Day for Quad Dual, Jan. 23
LAWRENCE, Kan. – Kansas swimming and diving will continue its preparations for February’s Big 12 Championship Meet and host a cross-section of collegiate swimming when the team returns to Robinson Natatorium for Club Day and a quad dual on Jan. 23. Kansas will compete against NCAA Division II opponent William Jewell, and NAIA schools Morningside and Tabor, starting at 10 a.m.
In addition to the action in the water, which offers a glimpse of various levels of collegiate swimming and features men’s and women’s races, Kansas Athletics’ Fun Zone, with a photo booth, inflatable games and more, will be deployed inside the Robinson Center from 9-11 a.m. As with all KU home meets, t-shirts from individual Kansas event winners will be tossed into the crowd. Furthermore, selected student-athletes from each squad will participate in a brief, hosted panel during a break in the meet, discussing their experience as a collegiate swimmer at their particular level.
The entire event is free and open to the public, like all Kansas swimming and diving home meets, but may have special interest to club swimmers who want to witness men’s and women’s collegiate swimming. Interested groups are encouraged to fill out this RSVP form or contact Steve Hetro (785-864-4962 or via email at stevehetro@ku.edu) in the Kansas Athletics Marketing Office.
“When the marketing staff approached us about doing some more promotions this year, we really liked their idea of using one of our events to promote collegiate swimming as a whole,” Kansas head coach Clark Campbell said. “There will certainly be some good racing and all the usual excitement that any meet provides, but this is an opportunity to make the meet a little bigger than usual and about more than the four teams involved. All of the student-athletes competing are former club or high school swimmers and we hope that we can inspire the next wave, remind them that there are opportunities in college.”
Due to the men’s basketball game against Texas on the same day, many parking lots will be restricted. Parking for the swimming and diving meet will be available a short walk to the east of Robinson Natatorium in KU Lots 34 and 61, between Alabama and Mississippi Streets off Sunnyside Avenue.
The Jayhawks are currently training in Florida for the next couple of days before the team returns to Lawrence and the winter training schedule shifts into its next phase. The Jayhawks have a 5-4 dual meet record in 2015-16 and split a double dual with Miami and Rutgers on Saturday. The quad dual on Jan. 23 is the first of three swims for the Jayhawks over the next month and a half before the culmination of a season’s work at the Big 12 Championships at Texas’ Jamail Swimming Center, Feb. 24-27. Qualifying times will be invited to the NCAA Championships in March, with eyes on further competition at the US Olympic Trials in Omaha, Neb., at the end of the summer (June 26-July 3).
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