Sept. 7, 2010
Men's Schedule Women's Schedule
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - Penn State swimming & diving head coach John Hargis announced his teams' 2010-11 slate of dual meets, invitationals and championships on Tuesday. The Nittany Lion men will see four teams visit McCoy Natatorium, while the women host three.
"It's a tough schedule," said Hargis. "When I came in [as head coach], one of the areas we needed to improve was our strength of schedule. I'm a coach that's always felt that to be the best you need to compete against the best and I want to make sure that our kids are very prepared when they go into the Big Ten Championship and that they are familiar with that level of competition and I think this schedule sets us up very well for that."
Penn State kicks off its season with its annual Blue-White Intrasquad event on Oct. 1 at 3:00 p.m. That is the precursor to two October duals, the first at West Virginia on Oct. 16 before hosting an Oct. 23 meet against Virginia Tech. A nearly month-long break from competition sees the Nittany Lions return for a tri-meet at Virginia on Nov. 19-20. Along with the Cavaliers, Penn State will face off against Big Ten foe Indiana.
"In the fall, the meet going down and swimming [against] Virginia and Indiana, Virginia being the ACC champions, Indiana on the women's side being the Big Ten Champion, [our athletes] are going to see a very high level [of competition]," Hargis noted. "Virginia women were a top 10 team last year; their men were I want to say top 15, Indiana women top 15 team. That's going to be a very tough meet in November but again I think it's going to set up our kids nicely for the Georgia Invite in early December."
The first weekend in December will be the busiest of the year, as Penn State's teams will compete in three different competitions. The Nittany Lions will participate in the USA Short Course Nationals in Columbus, Ohio, the Georgia Invitational in Athens, Ga. and the divers will compete at the Galbraith Diving Invitational in Piscataway, N.J.
After finals and winter break, Penn State's divers return to the well to take part in the Tennessee Diving Invitational on Jan. 2-4. Meanwhile, the swimmers will train in Florida, taking on ACC foe North Carolina in Naples, Fla.
"It's going to be fun down in Naples for our Christmas training meet, we're going to swim [against] UNC Chapel Hill," Hargis added. "It's going to be the first time we've swam them in a couple of years, probably five or six years since we've swum them. So, that will be a fun meet down in Naples for everyone."
The first meet back from winter training sees Penn State travel to College Park, Md. for a tri-meet with Maryland and Pittsburgh on Jan. 14-15. Villanova will also join the women's side of competition.
The Nittany Lions return to Happy Valley on Jan. 22 to take on the St. Bonaventure Bonnies at McCoy Natatorium. The dual meet will start at Noon. PSU travels to Ann Arbor, Mich. to take on national powers Michigan and the Ohio State men's team on Jan. 28-29 to cap the road portion of its dual meet schedule.
On Friday, Feb. 4, the Penn State men will take on Buffalo at McCoy Natatorium for a 4:00 p.m. meet. The next day, both squads will face off against Lehigh at 11:00 a.m. The Lehigh meet will also serve as Senior Day for Penn State's graduating student-athletes.
The Penn State women will compete in the Big Ten Championships at Indiana University from Feb. 16-19. The men travel to Minneapolis, Minn. for Big Tens on Feb. 23-26. Both championships will be aired on the Big Ten Network.
The Nittany Lion women are set to compete in the Feb. 26 Last Chance Meet at Ohio State, while the men head to Maryland on Mar. 5 for their Last Chance Meet. Both sets of NCAA Zone A Diving Qualifying takes place Mar. 11-13.
The two respective NCAA Championship meets see the women at Austin, Texas from Mar. 17-19, while the men are at the University of Minnesota from Mar. 24-26.
For complete coverage of all the Nittany Lion swimming & diving this season, visit GoPSUsports.com.
--NITTANY LIONS--