Swimming & Diving Schedule Loaded With Home Events
9/10/2014 12:00:00 AM | Swimming & Diving
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2014-15 Schedule
PITTSBURGH – Coming off its first season in the Atlantic Coast Conference, the Pitt swimming and diving program dives right into the 2014-15 schedule, which was released on Tuesday, Sept. 10.
Pitt pumped up its home slate for the upcoming campaign, growing from six events last year to eight events for 2014-15, including the Eastern College Athletic Conference Championships in late February.
“We’ve got a great facility to be able to have home meets in and we wanted to show off Trees Pool,” said head coach Chuck Knoles. “We really stepped up our schedule this year starting off with Duke as our very first meet. We’ve increased the competition level quite significantly over the last two years. This is just to prepare us for competition at the end of the season with the ACC, going into the conference championship and also trying to get kids to the National Championships in good form.”
The Panthers begin this season more than a week earlier, with the annual Blue/Gold Intrasquad meet kicking things off on Friday, Oct. 3, two weeks before the event took place in 2013.
Just over a week later, Pitt welcomes ACC foe Duke to Trees Pool for the season opener on Saturday, Oct. 11. Another early-season ACC meet highlights the following week with a trip down to Atlanta against Georgia Tech on Saturday, Oct. 18. The women will also face Georgia Southern.
Homecoming weekend is slated for Oct. 24-26 with Pitt hosting two meets during the festivities. After traveling to St. Bonaventure and Bucknell last year, both teams make the return trip to Pittsburgh with St. Bonaventure and the Panthers squaring off on Friday, Oct. 24 while Pitt and Bucknell go head-to-head on Saturday, Oct. 25.
ACC action resumes on Friday and Saturday, Nov. 7 and 8 when the Panthers head to South Bend, Ind. to take on conference opponents Notre Dame and Virginia Tech.
Two weeks later, Tress Pool will be the site of the annual Pitt Invite, which currently features five teams on the men’s side and eight for the women, including Clemson from the ACC. The three-day affair begins on Friday, Nov. 21.
The Pitt Invite serves as the final event of the fall semester for the full squad, however up to 15 men and 15 women swimmers will trek to Greensboro, N.C. for the AT&T Winter Nationals from Thursday Dec. 4 through Saturday, Dec. 6. Divers, meanwhile, have to opportunity to earn a spot in the Diving Senior Nationals in Columbus, Ohio that goes from Dec. 16-21.
With practice resuming on Jan. 2, the Panthers will have eight days to prepare for the annual Backyard Brawl with West Virginia, which will be held on Saturday, Jan. 10 in Pittsburgh. Pitt goes back on the road to Dennison a week later on Saturday, Jan. 17. After a two-week layoff, Pitt closes out the regular season home slate on Jan. 31, bringing in local schools Clarion, Carnegie Melon, California (Pa.) and Duquesne for senior day at Trees Pool.
In the final regular season meet, the Panthers travel across the state where they will swim against former BIG EAST foe Villanova on Saturday, Feb. 7.
Championship season begins with the Women’s ACC Championships on Wednesday, Feb. 18 and runs through Saturday, Feb. 21. The men will compete at the ACC Championships the following week from Feb. 25 to 28. Both events will have a familiar setting for Pitt, as the ACC Championships are being held in Atlanta, the site of Pitt’s first road meet of the season.
Previously announced, Pitt will host the ECAC Championships at Trees Pool from Friday, Feb. 27 to Sunday, March 1. It was also be a springboard for the Pitt women NCAA hopefuls, as the event represents the Last Chance Meet for Panthers swimmers.
“This is probably our 10th or 11th time hosting the ECAC Championships, we just haven’t hosted it recently. But we used to be the perennial host and we’re glad to see that meet return to Pitt,” said Knoles.
Swimmers may not have any events following the conclusion of the ECAC Championships until NCAA’s begin, but divers will step to the platform looking to qualify for NCAA’s at the Zone Diving Meet from March 9-11 at Rutgers in Piscataway, N.J.
This year, the Women’s NCAA Championships will take place in Greensboro, N.C. from March 19-21, while the men will compete in Iowa City, Iowa the next week from March 26-28. In between the two, the CSCAA Collegiate Classic takes place in Rockwell, Texas from March 23-25.