Kansas welcomes Missouri State, South Dakota for double dual
LAWRENCE, Kan. – Kansas swimming and diving hosts Missouri State and South Dakota in its second meet of the year inside Robinson Natatorium, Friday and Saturday, October 20-21.
The double dual format meet will feature 19 events spread across two days, with Friday’s session beginning at 5 p.m., followed by the final session on Saturday at noon.
Kansas claimed an early-season victory in a dual meet against Liberty to open up the 2017-18 campaign two weeks ago. The Jayhawks rallied the second and final day of the meet to pull off the come from behind win, 188.5-164.5.
Head coach Clark Campbell hopes his squad can carry over that momentum into this weekend’s events building off those performances.
“We had a really good meet two weeks ago,” Campbell said. “The second meet of the year, you tend to see the most improvements from that first meet. That is what we want to see across the board. We want everyone to take that next step and keep rolling into the championship season.”
One of those that Campbell wants to keep rolling is sophomore Jenny Nusbaum, who contributed 40 points to the team’s total in that comeback victory. She won the 1,000-, 500- and 100-yard freestyle events, and placed first and third, respectively, as part of the 400- and 200-yard relays. Her winning time of 10:17.40 in the 1,000-freestyle crushed her previous-best time by over eight seconds, while her 51.63 showing in the 100-freestyle set another career-best by .46 seconds.
Campbell thinks Nusbaum will exceed those previous times and have a strong weekend.
“She is really swimming at a high level,” Campbell said. “We talk about during the dual meet season that we want to be within three to five percent of our goal times. We want to be consistently in that range when we race and continue to work the details. Jenny is right there and we want to keep her headed in the right direction.”
On the diving side, senior Nadia Khechfe swept the podium in both the one- and three-meter dives two weeks ago, and looks to have another solid weekend on the board against the Bears and Coyotes.
The Jayhawks hosted a similar double dual about this same time during the 2016-17 campaign, and claimed victories over both participating schools – 209-130 against Missouri State; and 198-146 against North Dakota.
Campbell stresses the importance of meets like this to keep his squad moving in the right direction.
“This is an important meet for us,” Campbell said. “Missouri State and South Dakota are strong, quality teams. We talked about it today in practice. The Jayhawk brings the best out of our competition because everyone wants to beat Kansas. We have to defend our home pool and come in and perform at a high level – make this second meet better than our first.”
All home meets in Robinson Natatorium are free and open to the public. Fans who plan to attend are encouraged to park in Lot 90. Those that can’t attend can follow the action on social media via #KUswimdive.
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