Jayhawks, Bears and Pioneers Set for Busy Weekend at Robinson Natatorium

Schedule of Events
Friday, October 24
200 Medley Relay
1000 Freestyle
3m Diving
200 Freestyle
100 Backstroke
100 Breaststroke
200 Butterfly
50 Freestyle
15 Minute Break
200 IM
800 Freestyle Relay
Saturday, October 25
200 Freestyle Relay
400 IM
1m Diving
100 Freestyle
200 Backstroke
100 Butterfly
500 Freestyle
15 Minute Break
200 Breaststroke
400 Freestyle Relay

LAWRENCE, Kansas—The Kansas swimming and diving team hosts a showcase of collegiate swimming when it welcomes the Missouri State Bears and Denver Pioneers to Robinson Natatorium this weekend. The Jayhawks’ first home meet of the season begins Friday, October 24 at 5 p.m., and will feature both men’s and women’s events.

Kansas will match up with Missouri State and Denver in a double dual on the women’s side, while the men’s squads for the Bears and Pioneers compete against each other. The meet is split up over two days (Friday and Saturday), with a schedule of 19 events instead of the typical 16. Most events will include two heats of women followed by one heat of men.

“Swimming is a co-ed sport, we all grow up together,” Kansas head coach Clark Campbell said. “In high school we separate out a little bit, but college is where we really divide. It’ll be good to have men back in the pool again.

“Missouri State and Denver both have very good men’s teams, so we’re hoping some pool records will be taken down from when we had men’s teams regularly swimming here,” Campbell, whose son Canaan swims for Missouri State, continued. “It’ll be good to have them on campus and it will also help space out the meet a little more.”

Each athlete is normally eligible to swim four events in a typical one-day meet. At this meet, the athletes are allowed to race a total of six, no more than three each day, in any combination of individual and relay events.

“It’s maybe a little less than we normally do, but we’ll get to do different events,” Campbell said. “We’ll do both IMs—200 and 400—which we normally don’t do. We’ll do all the freestyle relays—the 200, 400, and 800 free relays. Unlike last meet where the girls were mainly doing freestyle events, this meet we open up the whole deck of cards and see what they can do.”

Campbell and the team set the focus for the early-season meets to set up good habits for the championship season beginning in February.

“We want to do really well in the championship season,” Campbell said. “You don’t just get to the championship season and hope you race well, you have to prepare to do it. It’s all about habits: to be able to warm themselves up, to be able to emotionally control things whether they go good or bad, how well they can bounce back from any type of performance, how well they take care of themselves Friday night heading into the Saturday meet. We need to create these good habits now so we don’t have to think about it and can just go into autopilot mode during the championship season.”

Kansas opened the season with a dual meet victory against the Mavericks of Nebraska-Omaha and returns ten All-Big 12 Conference performers from last year, including Morgan Sharp, Haley Molden, Chelsie Miller, Allison Merecka, Yulduz Kuchkarova, Bryce Hinde, Pia Pavlic, Leah Pfitzer and Hannah Angell. Nine talented freshmen will make their Robinson Natatorium debut.

Friday’s half of the meet will begin at 5 p.m. with the event order listed. The teams will resume on Saturday at noon, recognizing seniors Deanna Marks and Caroline Patterson just before the start. All home competitions in Robinson Natatorium are free and open to the public.

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