The No. 21 University of Arkansas swimming and diving team will travel to Columbia, Mo., to participate in the Missouri Invitational from Thursday to Saturday. The invitational follows the NCAA Championship meet format and will include teams from Utah, West Virginia, SLU, FIU, UC Davis, Northern Colorado, SIU, Nebraska and Texas A&M.
“The goals are really just to see where we’re at for the end of November,” head coach Sean Schimmel said. “We’re looking for good things to happen, for people to do things. In a matter, that’s going to let our work to this point show up. That’s kind of what I’m looking for. We’ve got a lot of things to figure out. It’s a championship-type meet. I’m looking for that type of focus and effort. It’s also just a barometer to see where we’re at and for people to be figuring things out.”
During the three-day invitational, prelims will take place each morning beginning at 10 a.m., and finals will take place each evening beginning at6 p.m.
Arkansas has had a strong start to its season, taking first place at the North Texas Relay Invitational and then recording four dual-meet wins at North Texas, at LSU, at Missouri State and against Nebraska. The team set a new school record with 14 straight dual-meet wins and has won no less than 13 events in any dual meet this season.
Arkansas’ performances so far this season were highlighted NCAA ‘B’ cut times for junior Nikki Daniels (Wichita, Kan.), in the 100- and 200-yard breaststroke events and for junior Julia Banach (Eilat, Israel), in the 200 breaststroke at LSU. The 200 medley relay team of sophomore Anna Mayfield (San Antonio, Texas), Daniels, junior Susanna White (Forest, Va.), and sophomore Nina Drolc (Velenje, Slovenia), finished first in 1:40.75, recording the fifth-best time in Arkansas history at LSU.
The team also broke four pool records at Missouri State in the 100 freestyle, 200 freestyle, 500 freestyle and 200 freestyle relay.
Senior diver Kesha Naylor (Saskatchewan, Canada) achieved NCAA zone qualifying scores on the 1- and 3-meter springboards. Her best scores were at Missouri State where she earned a 312.90 on the 3-meter, a 21.9-point improvement from her first zone qualifying score against Nebraska on Oct. 26, and a season-high 295.72 on 1-meter. Bartlett took second place in the 1-meter with a 273.37 to earn her first NCAA zone qualifying score in the event.
The invitational will be Arkansas’ last competition of the semester.
A live stream of each session and live stats will be available at ArkansasRazorbacks.com.
For more information on Arkansas swimming and diving, follow @RazorbackSwim on Twitter.
This release was provided to SwimSwam courtesy of University of Arkansas swimming and diving.
