Sept. 19, 2005
COLUMBIA, Mo. - The Missouri swimming and diving program will begin a new era in 2005-06 with the opening of the brand-new Mizzou Aquatics Center, and it will do so with a challenging slate of opponents. The men's team will take the water against no fewer than eight teams that finished last season in the College Swim Coaches Association of America (CSCAA) top 25.
"We're facing some challenging teams this season, there's no doubt about it," Mizzou head coach Brian Hoffer said. "It's fun to swim against good competition and it's something we felt we needed to do."
In-states foes Missouri State, Drury, Saint Louis, Missouri-Rolla, Truman State and Washington University-Saint Louis will get the first crack at the Tigers in their new facility, traveling to Columbia on Oct. 8 for the inaugural Show-Me-Showdown invitational.
Less than a week later, Mizzou will host the annual Big 12 Relays, an event in which they finished third last season, on Oct. 14 before turning around and facing conference foe Texas A&M the next morning.
Following that weekend of action in Columbia, Mizzou embarks on a road schedule that takes them to seven different cities before they host another meet. The Tigers begin the road trip in Carbondale, Ill., where they will try to win their second dual in as many seasons against Southern Illinois.
From there, the Tigers will visit West Lafayette, Ind., and Austin, Texas, for invitationals hosted by national powers Purdue and Texas, respectively. At Purdue, the squad will take on a field that includes Florida, Northwestern and Tennessee, while the Texas Invite will pit the Tigers against defending conference champion Texas and top-25 program Southern California.
Mizzou will then travel to Coral Gables, Fla., for a training trip meet before heading back to their home state for a dual with Missouri State in Springfield on Jan. 14.
The Tiger men cross state lines again one week later, visiting Iowa City, Iowa seeking a second consecutive road win over the Iowa Hawkeyes before pushing on to Notre Dame, Ind., from Jan. 27-28 to take on the Fighting Irish and the Penn State Nittany Lions. They wrap up their '05-06 dual schedule on Feb. 3 when they face Drury in Springfield, Mo.
Mizzou will play host to each of their conference foes from Feb. 22-25 when the Big 12 Championships come to Columbia. After the conference meet, the Mizzou Aquatics Center will be the site of two Last Chance meets - Feb. 26 and March 4 - and the NCAA Zone Diving Championships from March 9-11.
The '05-06 season comes to an end from March 23-25 in Athens, Ga., at the NCAA Championships.