MADISON, Wis. – With a trio of dual meets completed, the No. 18 Wisconsin women's team and the No. 23 Wisconsin men's team head to Austin, Texas, for the Texas Invitational at the Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center.  Competition begins on Wednesday, and runs through Saturday.

The Longhorns will also host a long course time trial on Sunday beginning at 10 a.m. (CT).

"We've done a lot of good work this fall and this will give us an indication of where we are," UW head coach Whitney Hite said. "The Texas Invitational is a halfway point for us, so to speak. The expectation is to swim fast. We know that the Texas men and women are very fast and will provide us good opportunities to race. You've also got USC, Arizona and others. It's a good setup for us and a great situation."

Joining the Badgers in Austin are four teams ranked in the top 20 by the Collegiate Swim Coaches Association of America (CSCAA), including the No. 6 Texas women's team and No. 1 Texas men's team, No. 20/17 Arizona, No. 16/19 Southern California, and No. 19 UCLA women's team. BYU, Harvard, and Oklahoma Baptist will also compete in the four-day invitational.

"The Texas Invitational kind of brings to a close this semester, so to speak, and the second semester for us is all about racing. So it's kind of a little bit of a natural transition," Hite said. "But really, I think that it's kind of a midseason mark. We can look and ask ourselves, 'How did we do?' It gives us time to make some adjustments if we need to and get the ball rolling, which is good."

The Badgers will be well represented at the Texas Invitational across the event board, having garnered top-10 seeds in seven events each for the men and women.

On the women's side, the Wisconsin 'A' 200-yard medley relay is ranked eighth and will compete in a timed final on Wednesday at 6 p.m. The fifth-ranked 200-yard freestyle relay will compete in a timed final on Thursday night, while the 10th-ranked 400-yard freestyle relay will compete on Saturday at 6 p.m.

Four individual women have earned top-10 rankings heading to Austin, headlined by Chase Kinney's fifth-place seed in the 50-yard freestyle. Kinney will swim in the preliminary heat on Thursday at 9 a.m., with the chance to qualify for Thursday night's final session beginning at 6 p.m.

Danielle Valley will also swim on Thursday morning, as the junior is ranked sixth in the 500-yard freestyle. The final heat for the distance event will be held on Thursday night as well.

Freshman Jess Unicomb is ranked seventh in the 200-yard backstroke and will compete in the preliminary heat of the event on Saturday morning with a chance to compete again in the final heat on Saturday night.

Rounding out the individual top-10 rankings for the women is Dana Grindall, who is ranked 10th in the 200-yard butterfly. Grindall will compete in the preliminary heat on Saturday morning, while the championship heat will be held on Saturday night.

On the men's side, four relays are ranked within the top-10, as the Wisconsin 'A' 800-yard freestyle relay is ranked fourth and will compete in a timed final event on Wednesday night. The sixth-ranked 200-yard freestyle relay and ninth-ranked 400-yard medley relay will both compete on Thursday night. 

Two of Wisconsin's 400-yard freestyle relay teams are ranked in the top 10, as the 'A' squad is seventh and the 'B' team is eighth. Both teams will compete in the relay event on Saturday night.

Three Badgers are ranked within the top 10 individually, as Cannon Clifton leads the way with a fifth-place rank in the 50-yard freestyle. Clifton will swim the sprint event in the preliminary heat on Thursday morning with a chance to qualify for the final heat on Thursday night.

Junior Brett Pinfold is ranked ninth and 10th in the 100-yard freestyle and 200-yard backstroke, respectively, as preliminary heats of both events will be held on Saturday morning. Championship heats of the events will be held Saturday night.

The meet gets underway Wednesday night at 6 p.m. with both the men's and women's 800-yard freestyle relays.