KU faces off against William Jewell in midweek dual
LAWRENCE, Kan. – Kansas swimming and diving will make a quick trip on Thursday, January 19, to Liberty, Missouri to swim a dual meet against William Jewell at 6 p.m. In the fourth-straight annual clash between the two programs, KU will look to extend its three-year winning streak over William Jewell.
Both the Jayhawks and the Cardinals will relish different competitive opportunities Thursday night. Kansas presents an opportunity for the Division II Cardinals, currently in their fifth year of swimming after a 20-year absence, to compete against a Division I program. KU head coach Clark Campbell knows from his days coaching then-NAIA level West Virginia Wesleyan how important competing against a higher-level program is to a season’s success. Kansas swimmers will also benefit greatly from the competitive experience that deviates from what they are accustomed to. The meet will be held in a short-course meters pool, as opposed to the customary short-course yards collegiate pool, and Campbell will push his swimmers to swim different events.
“Not too many college teams have access to 25-meter pools, which we do,” Campbell explained. “Our swimmers actually understand the 25-meter distances, their stroke counts, etc. It’s a little bit of an advantage for us, but we don’t get to race many meets in short course meters.
“(This meet) enables us to do different events. It allows some athletes to do their third event that they’ll do at conference but they don’t get to do much in dual meets, and it allows some to do off events which they never get to do.”
The William Jewell meet is part of a series of weekly competitions meant to prepare the Jayhawks for the upcoming Big 12 Championships. Kansas will travel to Arkansas the following week on January 28 and afterwards host Iowa State for a two-day meet at the beginning of February that will get both teams ready for Big 12-level competition.
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