Courtesy: SIU Athletics
“I love racing at home,” said SIU Head Coach Geoff Hanson. “We hope to have a lot of friends and family in the stands and have the stands full again.”
After starting action at the CSCAA Open Water Championships in Lawrence, Kansas, the Salukis will have their first meet of the year at rival Missouri State. The two-day meet will be in Springfield, Missouri, and begin on the 1st of October.
Southern will then host three meets through the rest of October, including Oct. 8 against McKendree, Oct. 9 against Missouri, and Oct. 29 against both Illinois and Illinois State.
“It’s really exciting to have Mizzou and Illinois, Power-5 programs, coming to our campus to race on our turf,” Hanson said.
In the final meet for the 2021 calendar year, the Salukis will host the A3 Performance Invitational. Participating in the Invitational will be squads from Bellarmine, Eastern Illinois, Evansville and Valparaiso.
“We want to build that meet up into a quality mid-season meet,” said Hanson. “It gives us a chance to get some lifetime bests, to break some school records, and to post some NCAA-qualifying times in the mid-season. A3 coming on to sponsor will get some national attention, which is exciting.”
January will start with three away meets: Jan. 14 at Illinois-Chicago, Jan. 15 at Valparaiso, and Jan. 21 at Arkansas-Little Rock, which will also include Henderson State. The final regular-season home meet will see the women’s team take on Indiana State on Jan. 22 in Carbondale.
The postseason push will begin in February, as Iowa City, Iowa will host the Women’s Missouri Valley Conference (MVC) Championships on Feb. 16-19. Following that, Southern will host the Men’s MAC Championships on Mar. 2-5. It will be the second time in three years that the Salukis have hosted the MAC Championships.
Meet dates and times are subject to change. The schedule can be found here.
