Oct. 28, 2002

COLUMBIA, Mo. - The women's swimming and diving team capped off a successful weekend of competition with the announcement of being ranked the #21 team in the country by the College Swim Coaches Association of America. The announcement was posted on CollegeSwimming.com earlier this morning.

The Tigers swept the Fall Illini Classic this past weekend in Champaign, Illinois to bring their season's dual meet record to 5-0. The team is currently riding a 15 dual meet winning streak, dating back to February 3, 2001. Last season the Tigers ranked #25 in the final CSCAA poll, the first time ever that the Tigers cracked the top 25.

"It's quite an honor to be ranked," said head coach Brian Hoffer, " This poll is voted on by other swimming coaches and anytime that your peers consider you to be one of the top 25 programs in the country, that's great. However our job as coaches is to improve on the rankings once you're there. It's not where you are at the beginning of the season but where you are at the end that counts and I'm stressing that to our athletes."

The team returns to the pool for a home dual meet this Friday against conference rival Kansas in the University Natatorium. The start time for the meet is 6:00 p.m. The women then hit the road with the men's team to take on NCAA DII Swimming & Diving Champions Truman State University in Kirksville, Mo. on Saturday November 2 at 2:00 p.m.