Oct. 16, 2013
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The Penn State swimming and diving teams will host two meets at the McCoy Natatorium this year in Tim Murphy's first season with the program. The men's side will compete in a total of nine weekends during the 2012-13 season and the women have eight weekend competitions scheduled before contending for a Big Ten Championship in late February.
The Lions kick off their season with its traditional season-opening meet vs. West Virginia on Oct. 18 at 5 p.m. in McCoy Natatorium. The women's side has won three-straight meetings with the Mountaineers, while the men have claimed victories in the first meet of the year in back-to-back seasons.
After the opener, the men's team will travel to Buffalo to faceoff with the Bulls on Saturday, Nov. 2 at 2 p.m. Penn State holds a perfect 7-0 record vs. Buffalo in the all-time series, last winning by a final of 138-97 in a February of 2012 meeting.
Both the men's and women's teams will head to Charlottesville for an early season test in a tough two-day meet with Virginia, Texas and West Virginia on Nov. 8 and 9. The first event of the meet will begin at 5 p.m. on Friday and Saturday's action is slated to start at 11 a.m.
Sandwiched between Thanksgiving and Christmas break is a trip to Austin for the Texas Invitational. The invite is a three day competition that begins on Thursday, Dec. 5 and finishes on Saturday, Dec. 7. The 2013-14 season will mark the first time PSU has competed in the three day event.
Claire Singley |
Upon returning from Austin, the team has nearly a month long break before facing North Carolina in Naples, Fla. on Saturday, Jan. 4. This season will mark the third consecutive year the Nittany Lions and Tar Heels have met in Florida for the competition.
The Blue and White then heads back north to fill out the rest of its January competitions at Villanova on Friday, Jan. 17 at 2 p.m. and then a week later at Navy on Saturday, Jan. 25 at 11 a.m. Villanova, the intrastate foe, is one of Penn State's longest standing rivalries for both the men's and women's programs, while the matchup with Navy will be just the fourth time both teams have competed against the Midshipmen.
St. Bonaventure and Towson will come to Happy Valley on Saturday, Feb. 1 for the Nittany Lions' second and final home meet of the season. The competition is set to begin at 1 p.m. The 2013-14 regular season will conclude for the Lions when the squads travel to Columbus, Ohio for the annual Ohio State Invite on Feb. 15 and 16.
The Penn State women will compete in the Big Ten Championships in Minneapolis, Minn. from Feb. 19-22, while the men travel to Ann Arbor, Mich. for the Big Ten Championships on Feb. 26 through March 1. The women's Last Chance Meet will take place on Sunday, March 2 and the men will compete on Sunday, March 9. The locations for the Last Chance Meets are to be determined.
The NCAA Championships will begin in mid-March, with both sets of NCAA Zone A Diving Qualifying taking place March 10-12 at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Va. The women's swimming portion of the NCAA Championships is a three day event in Minneapolis that begins on March 20 and ends on March 22. The men's NCAA Championships are held in Austin, Texas. The three day competition runs from March 27-29.
Check back to GoPSUSports.com for continued coverage of the Penn State swimming and diving teams during the 2013-14 season. Follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/PennStateSWIM and find us on Facebook at facebook.com/pennstateswimminganddiving.