Oct. 11, 2005
COLUMBIA, Mo. - The Missouri women's swimming and diving team begins a grueling three-day stretch for the program, in which the Tigers have three meets in as many days, on Thursday when they play host to defending conference champion Texas. The meet will start at 6 p.m.
The meet marks two firsts in Tiger history: the first women's dual in the Mizzou Aquatics Center and the first women's dual against Texas in the 13-year Brian Hoffer era.
"We wanted to make the first dual in the new facility a challenging one," Hoffer said. "Texas is one of the premier women's programs in the country. From top to bottom, they are deep and talented."
The Longhorns finished the 2004-05 season ranked fourth in the College Swim Coaches Association (CSCAA) Coaches' Poll after finishing with a 7-1 dual record and winning its seventh-consecutive Big 12 crown.
Following the showdown with Texas, both the MIzzou men's and women's squads will be in action at 9 a.m. Friday morning, as the MAC plays host to the Big 12 Relays for the first time. The Tigers haven't hosted the annual event since 2001, when they competed in the University Natatorium; coincidentally the vote that allocated funds for the building of the MAC, among other things, took place the following Monday.
Mizzou, Texas and Texas A&M will all field both men's and women's teams at the event, and the Nebraska, Iowa State and Kansas women's teams will join the competition. Swimmers may swim as many times an unlimited number of events in the all-relay meet, but are limited to six races as a member of their school's "A" relays.
"With a meet like this, you just have to wait and see what happens," Hoffer said. "I don't know where we'll be in terms of results at the end of the meet. We're just going to work on the things that we've been working on, and we'll see how the points shake down at the end of the day."
As if the daunting task of facing a slate of Big 12 competition on two consecutive days isn't tough enough for any swimming and diving program, both the Tiger men and women will take to the water again on Saturday for a dual Texas A&M at 10 a.m.
Both the Tiger men's and women's teams dropped dual meets to the Aggies in '04-05, with both matchups taking place in Lawrence, Kan. The Texas A&M men finished 16th in last season's final CSCAA rankings with a 4-3-1 dual record, while the Aggie women claimed a spot in the final poll's top-10 (No. 9) after posting a 9-3 dual record.
"The Texas A&M dual is going to show how tough our women's team really is," Hoffer said. "It'll be their third meet in three days, and it's against a top-10 opponent. We'll find out a lot about our women when Saturday is over."
"As far as the men are concerned, we'd like to be able to compare ourselves to Texas A&M in the conference. Both teams are changing, but we're similar as well. We have 13 freshmen and they have 13 freshmen, so it'll be a battle of youth Saturday on the men's side."
For all the latest on Mizzou swimming and diving, including results and recaps from this weekend's meet, check www.mutigers.com. Admission to all meets is free of charge.