BOWLING GREEN, Ky.-The Western Kentucky University swimming and diving team closes out the semester by traveling to Oxford, Ohio, to compete at the 19th Annual Miami (OH) Invitational at the Corwin Nixon Aquatic Center inside Miami's Rec Center.
The competition begins on Thursday, November 29 at 6 p.m. and concludes on Saturday, December 1. Friday and Saturday will have prelims begin at 9 a.m. with finals at 6 p.m. WKU will compete against seven other teams, as the field consists of Miami (OH), Denison, Cincinnati, Wright State, Emory, Marshall (women only) and Urbana.
"It is going to be an extremely challenging meet," WKU head coach Bruce Marchionda said. "University of Cincinnati is going to be very good along with Miami (Ohio), which is perennial MAC champions, will be very good as well as a number of other schools who will be rested and going after their national cuts. It is going to be great competition for us. It is one of the reasons we are going.
"One of the primary things is we are going to have to swim fast in the morning to qualify to come back in the evening for the finals. Just as an example, there are 82 girls in the 200 free. You have to swim fast and obviously beat many of them to come back and have the opportunity to swim at night, so it is going to put us in a situation where we are going to have to swim fast in the morning just like you would at the conference championships, which is what we are looking for, and what we are looking for is best times of the season at this point. That is our goal coming into the meet."
Before the holiday break, WKU swept its competition at the Hilltopper Invite, as the Lady Toppers took first with 878.5 points and the Hilltoppers claimed the top spot with 1021 points.
"There were a lot of positives that came out of the Hilltopper Invite, especially our approach to the meet where we did not back off or rest, and we tried to get them to get up and swim fast when they are pretty tired," said Marchionda. "They were really able to do that. Eight pool records was I thought beyond our expectations, and a lot of our swimmers just really responded to the competition in the conference format that we were using kind of as a rehearsal, and the biggest thing is that we found some third events for some individuals that will help us come conference time."
Sophomore Allie Duff earned her second Sun Belt Conference's Swimmer of the Week award after her performance, as the Canada native competed in eight events over the three-day span and placed first in five events while setting three pool records in the process, including the 200 back.
Senior Ashley Forsyth set a new Bill Powell Natatorium record in the 1650 free while senior Billy Kunkel set two individual records in the 100 breast and 200 IM. Junior Heitor Rodrigues rounds out the individual record breakers by lowering the pool record in the 100 fly.
The three other new records came in relay events. The men's 200 free relay of junior Richard Russell, Kunkel, Rodrigues and senior Jordan Vorst, the women's 200 medley relay team of Duff, sophomore Claire Conlon, sophomore Hannah Runyon-Hass and sophomore Paige Drazga, and the women's 400 free relay of Duff, senior Hilary Mishler, Runyon-Hass and freshman Michelle Craddock all tabbed new best times.
Freshman diver Giorgi Meyer joins senior Caitlin Dean as qualifiers for the NCAA Zone Diving Championships. With Dean notching her score earlier in the season, Meyer reached his at the Hilltopper Invite with a score of 286.57 on the three-meter board.
Live stats will be available via MURedHawks.com. Tickets for the event cost $5 for adults and $3 for youth as one wristband gets a spectator in for the entire day. Heat sheets will also be available for $1.
