Six Home Meets set for Swimmers In 2003-04
May 14, 2003 | Women's Swimming & Diving
Last year, the Wisconsin men's and women's swimming and diving team competed in just three home meets. This season, Badger swim fans will have twice as many opportunities to see UW swimmers and divers in action with six home meets on the 2003-04 schedule. Four of UW's first five meets are home contests.
The Badgers make their opening splash in 2003-04 with back-to-back home meets, first playing host to the Wisconsin Invite, Oct. 10 at 2 p.m. UW follows with a dual meet versus Big Ten Conference rival Iowa on Oct. 24-25.
'We're excited to have more home meets,' coach Eric Hansen said. 'Our recent successes have generated more local interest so it's nice to be able to compete in front of our home crowd.'
The women's team is coming off its best national finish since taking 11th in 2000. The UW women took 12th in 2003, good for UW's second-best finish in program history. Hansen was named Big Ten Women's Swimming Coach of the Year and Carly Piper earned Big Ten Swimmer of the Year and her second Swimmer of the Championship honors at the conference meet.
The men's team finished 13th at the 2003 NCAA Championships, its highest placement since taking 10th in 1968. The Badger men earned 105 points, the highest point total in UW history at a national meet.
Wisconsin hits the road for the first time in the 2003-04 season with a trip to the Arizona Invitational, but quickly returns home for two more meets. The Badgers face Indiana Nov. 7 and Northwestern Nov. 13. Indiana's women's team won the 2003 Big Ten Championship while the Hoosier men finished third.
UW returns to the road in late November to compete in the Minnesota Invitational and travels to the prestigious Texas Invitational in December. In January, Wisconsin makes its annual training stop in Hawaii. In Hawaii, UW will compliment its extensive training schedule with competition in the Rainbow Classic and against the University of Hawaii in a dual meet Jan. 9.
The Badgers return to Madison and play host to the Big Ten Quad Duals, Jan. 30-31. Wisconsin will complete its 2003-04 home schedule against UW-Green Bay and UW-Milwaukee on Feb. 6 at 5 p.m., at the UW Natatorium.
The championship season starts in late February, with the 2004 Big Ten Championships and continues into March with the 2004 NCAA Championships.
