Senior Night Begins Busy Weekend
January 28, 2016 05:27 PM | Men's Swimming & Diving
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The West Virginia University swimming and diving team will compete in a pair of meets this weekend beginning with Senior Night on Friday, Jan. 29, at 5 p.m., at the WVU Natatorium.
On Friday, the WVU men and women will take on Villanova, while the women face Big 12 foe Iowa State. Live stats from the final home meet of the season can be found at WVUsports.com.
Next, WVU will travel to Columbus, Ohio, to compete against Ohio State, Michigan and Buffalo on Saturday, Jan. 30, at 1 p.m. in the regular season finale for the WVU swimmers.
“Honoring our seniors on Friday makes it a special meet,” said coach Vic Riggs. “You forget how fast time moves, and this group of seniors has done a wonderful job. Watching them grow, develop and mature into fine young adults, students and athletes has been a true honor for myself and the staff.”
The Mountaineers will honor 15 seniors: Morgan Emter, Kelsey Frantz, Aidan Fumagalli, Jaimee Gillmore, Ross Glegg, Jay Hickey, Jake Iotte, Natalie Johnsen, Emma Luigard, Andrew Marsh, Courtney Miller, Katie Murto, Lindsay Schmidt, Max Spencer and Chase Williams.
The Mountaineer men (4-2, 1-0 Big 12) are coming off back-to-back wins over TCU and Pitt. The women are 4-3 and 0-1 in the Big 12 after a narrow loss at TCU on Jan. 16.
The Villanova women stand at 5-1 overall, while the men are 2-5. Iowa State’s women are 5-3 and 1-0 in the Big 12 with a win against TCU on Nov. 6.
“The women finish with two challenging days of competition,” said Riggs. “Friday will be against two very strong programs. Both Villanova and ISU beat us last year, so being at home and honoring our seniors will be an advantage, but we will have to compete at a high level to come out with two victories.
“Friday will give the men an opportunity for us to look at some different events as we try to finalize our Big 12 scoring team and lineup. Saturday’s meet, as with for the women, is here specifically to see how we respond to a difficult situation of traveling and competing a day after a home meet. We will be competing against three very strong programs, and we’ll be putting our best lineup together to be as competitive as we can.”
Ohio State will host Saturday’s meet at the McCorkle Aquatic Pavilion. Two of WVU’s three opponents are ranked in the CSCAA top 25. Michigan is No. 6 in both the men’s and women’s rankings, while the OSU women are No. 15 and the men are No. 25.
Live results can be found at OhioStateBuckeyes.com.
The Buckeye women are 6-0, while the men are 5-0. The Wolverine women are 6-1 and the men are 7-0. The Bulls’ men’s squad holds a 3-0 record. The UB women are not competing at the event.
“Having the opportunity to compete in a great facility and against the top programs in their conferences is exactly the test this team needs going into the Big 12 Championship if we are going to accomplish the goals we have set forth for this season,” said Riggs.
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