Swim / Dive Set for Pair of Midseason Meets
CORAL GABLES, Fla. – The Miami Hurricanes swimming & diving team hits the road for a pair of midseason meets this weekend, with swimming traveling to the Kansas Classic and diving heading to the IUPUI House of Champions.
“This is a good barometer for us, and we’re looking to see some fast swimming,” head swimming coach Andy Kershaw said. “This is the most prepared they’ve been all year, and that should show for most of them. We’re dealing with some injuries, but even though we’re a bit thin, it’s a chance for other people to step up and swim faster than they’ve ever swam.”
The Hurricanes swimmers will be competing in a field that includes the host Jayhawks as well as Iowa State, Northern Iowa and Omaha, among others.
Kershaw said the meet was selected with careful consideration, with one eye looking towards the ACC Swimming & Diving Championships and the NCAA Championships during springtime. Live scoring and updates will be available on Meet Mobile.
“A lot of thought went into choosing the competition, as we do with all of them,” he said. “As we develop the program and move up in the ACC, I think that preparation requires a certain dynamic, and that’s what we found with that meet.
“These are great teams to go up against and it’s a mix from different conferences, some Power 5, things like that. It’s a chance for everybody to get some races and some experiences where we can carry that into ACCs and do some damage there at the end of year.”
Now in his seventh year at the helm, Kershaw expects his team to showcase the work ethic and competitive edge that have emerged as core values of the program.
“The key is that we have everybody has to be at their best,” he said. “We’re not deep enough to have some people show up for some events and not for others, and you never want that anyway. That’s one of the things I want to see come through the most.”
A little further north, the Hurricanes divers travel to the 19th annual House of Champions meet at IUPUI. Included in the field will be Butler, Cincinnati, Illinois, Indiana and Michigan State, among others.
The Hurricanes will be competing at the Indiana University Natatorium on the IUPUI campus – the same pool hosting the 2020 U.S. Olympic Team Trials and the 2020 NCAA Men’s Swimming & Diving Championships. Head diving coach Randy Ableman said that traveling to the pool and building familiarity with the facility for two significant competition in 2020 was a key factor in deciding upon the meet as a destination.
The weekend’s events will be streamed on ESPN3 and live scoring is available on DiveMeets.
Following the weekend in Indianapolis, some of the Hurricanes will begin final preparations for the USA Diving Winter Nationals (Dec. 16-22) in Minneapolis.
