Swimming Set for Georgia Tech Invitational
ATLANTA — The University of Miami swimming team continues its season Friday on the opening day of competition at the annual Georgia Tech Invitational.
Preliminaries will commence Friday and Saturday at 10 a.m., with finals slated to begin at 6 p.m. each of the first two days. The final day of competition will take place Sunday, featuring 9 a.m. preliminary rounds and 3 p.m. finals.
“I think we’re going to be good this weekend,” first-year swimming coach Andy Kershaw said. “I’m looking forward to it, and I know our swimmers are too. We want to keep improving, and this is another opportunity to do that.”
After falling in their most recent tri-meet with conference foes Duke and NC State, Kershaw said his team was initially disappointed in their efforts. But after a detailed review of times and individual performances, the Hurricanes had actually recorded better results than in any previous competition.
“Afterwards we looked and found out that the majority of our swims were the best we’ve been this year, which means we’re raising the bar – which is exactly what I want,” Kershaw said. “I think this weekend is going to be a chance to raise the bar even higher. We have still been training, but I think they will be a little more adjusted to the cycle we’re just finishing, which will put them in a better position.”
The Hurricanes have found success in their recent trips to the Georgia Tech Invitational. Paced by contributions from its entire roster, Miami finished last year’s event in third place with 772 points.
Kershaw is encouraged by the structure of the invite, which is similar to the schedule his team encountered at the All-Florida Invitational in Gainesville, Fla., to open its season.
“It’s important to have that experience, and I think with the fact our team is fairly small, that puts us in a little better position. It makes it easier to focus on if we’re we making finals, and if we’re performing our best where we need to do.”
Kershaw emphasized the meet’s event schedule – which is identical to the ACC Championships and NCAA Championships postseason lineup – to his team before leaving for Atlanta.
“I met with our women and said these events are the same events we had at All-Florida Invite, it’s the same event schedule we’ll have at ACC’s, and the same we’ll do at NCAA’s,” he said. “It’s important to know that and for them to feel like they know what they’re getting into each day.”
Miami will be competing against local foes Florida Atlantic and FGCU, as well as invitees James Madison, Tennessee, Vanderbilt and host Georgia Tech.
“We’ve been trying to work on being a little quicker. We spent the beginning portion of the season making sure they had a good base underneath them, to feel like they had confidence to finish their races. To that we needed to add some quickness, for them to get out faster so it won’t be as hard. That’s what we’re looking for – a little more explosiveness and a little more quickness.”
Live Stats for the meet will be available via RamblinWreck.com, as well as the Mobile Meet app. Live video of the final rounds for each of the three days of competition is also available through RamblinWreck.com.
