Comerford, Hansson Headline This Weekend’s SMU Classic

24th Annual 2017 SMU Women’s Classic

• Friday, October 13 – Saturday, October 14
• Westside Aquatic Center
• Lewisville, Texas
• Meet Info
• Live Results

The 24th Annual SMU Women’s Classic is set to get underway on Friday, with five teams going facing off at the Westside Aquatic Center in Lewisville, Texas. SMU’s new pool, the Robson & Lindley Aquatics Center and Barr-McMillion Natatorium, is nearing completion and is slated to host LSU on November 3rd.

The teams heading to the meet will be Michigan, Louisville, USC, UCLA, Miami, and the hosts from SMU.

The meet format is uniquely its own, with each team selecting eight swimmers and one diver to represent them throughout the two days. Swimmers are permitted three events per day, one of which must be a relay. Each team will field two swimmers per event, one swimming in the championship final and one in the consolation final. Relays will only have a championship final.

The format of the meet elicits an intense atmosphere, which often leads to a touchstone early on in the NCAA season.

Last year, Michigan and Louisville duelled to the bitter end, with the Wolverines ultimately walking away with a 1-point win.

Headlining the rosters this year is 200 free NCAA champ Mallory Comerford of Louisville, who was the highest point scorer last year with 42. Individually she won the 100 free and had runner-up finishes in the 200 and 500.

Louise Hansson of USC was the one who upended the eventual national champ in the 200 free last year, and also came out on top in the 200 IM. She returns this year, as does Michigan’s Yirong Bi who won the 500 over Comerford in 2016.

Other notable names competing include Alina Kendzior of Louisville, Siobhan Haughey of Michigan, and Maddie Wright of USC. Check out full rosters below, minus Miami whose head coach Andy Kershaw has declined to share their roster for what he says are competitive reasons..

The meet schedule is as follows: