Jayhawks Begin Home Schedule with Senior Day
Oct. 18, 2012
LAWRENCE, Kan. – The University of Kansas swimming and diving team will compete in its first home meet of the 2012-13 season, Saturday, when it takes on Minnesota at 1 p.m. in Robinson Natatorium. The meet will also serve as Senior Day for the program as eight seniors will be honored prior to the meet.
Captains Brooke Brull, Alyssa Rudman and Rebecca Swank lead the skilled group of seniors that will be honored on Saturday before the meet. Sharing the festivities with them are Christy Cash, Svetlana Golovchun, Cora Powers, Brittany Rospierski and Madison Wagner who are also embarking on their final season with the Jayhawks.
“This is one of our larger senior classes in the last couple of years,” Kansas head coach Clark Campbell said. “They each bring a unique perspective and strength to the program, but they have all done a really good job of making the program better and they are awesome sales people of the university and the athletic department.”
Kansas (1-0) is coming off a season-opening win at Rice, where several newcomers made strong debuts to give the Jayhawks a 166-132 edge over the Owls. The team will need to use that momentum and experience in order to compete with the talented Golden Gophers on Saturday.
“We were very competitive with Rice and it was a very good meet,” Campbell said. “The upperclassmen did a really nice job and our newcomers stepped up and swam really well. I think we are carrying a lot of momentum into the Minnesota meet and we are a step or two from where we were two weeks ago.”
Minnesota (2-0) comes to Lawrence as the defending Big Ten champion, looking to spoil the Jayhawk festivities. The Golden Gophers, who finished the 2011-12 season ranked No. 15 in the country, return nine swimmers and one diver who qualified for the NCAA championships last season, where they finished 11th as a team.
“They have earned their success through hard work and a very supportive situation,” Campbell said. “It is great to get them back on the schedule. It will be a big challenge for us to compete with them on Saturday.”
Picking up where they left off last year, the Golden Gophers swept the first group of weekly awards in the Big Ten, when sophomore Jessica Plant was named co-swimmer of the week, junior Maggie Keefer won diver of the week and Kierra Smith collected freshman of the week honors. Despite the accolades up and down the Minnesota roster, Campbell still likes his team’s chances to compete this weekend.
“This will be their third meet in three weeks, so they are definitely racing sharp and ready to go,” Campbell said. “All I am focused on is to compete with them and take a step or two further than where we were at Rice. I think we have a really good opportunity to do that.”
Saturday’s dual meet features 12 individual swim events, two relay races and two diving events. The full order of events is as follows:
200-yard medley relay
1000-yard freestyle
200-yard freestyle
100-yard backstroke
100-yard breaststroke
200-yard butterfly
50-yard freestyle
three-meter dive (full break)
100-yard freestyle
200-yard backstroke
200-yard breaststroke
500-yard freestyle
100-yard butterfly
one-meter dive (full break)
200-yard IM
200-yard freestyle relay
The team will hit the pool again next Thursday, Oct. 25, when they travel to Omaha, Neb., to take on Nebraska-Omaha at 5 p.m. at the HPER Swimming Pool.
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