Wisconsin Lines Up 3 Top 10 Opponents for 2016-17

The Wisconsin Badgers have released their schedule for the 2016-17 NCAA season, with 6 dual meets and 2 invites to tackle before the postseason. The men and women have identical schedules this season, and each will face 3 top 10 opponents from the 2016 NCAA Championships.

The first big match up will be their season opener at home against the Auburn Tigers, who placed 10th on the men’s side last season, on October 8th. Their next top-10 matchups will be back-to-back two-day dual meets on the road, as the Badgers travel to NC State (October 21st-22nd) and Georgia (November 4th-5th). The women have their final top-10 foe to open 2017 when the teams travel to Los Angeles to swim against the USC Trojans, who placed 6th on the women’s side in 2016.

Interestingly, while the Badgers’ season is lined with plenty of high-level competition, they’ll only face one Big Ten team before conference. That meet will be a highly-anticipated rematch with the Minnesota Golden Gophers on October 13th, as the Badger women pulled out a win against Minnesota by just 4 points last season. The men, on the other hand, have won this series for the last 3 seasons, and will look for a 4th-straight win this year.

Wisconsin has the Texas Invite lined up for the mid-season period, which usually serves as an opportunity for teams to qualify their swimmers for NCAAs early on. The meet is one of 3 invites they have planned for this season.

• The 2016 Missouri Diving Invitational (November 17th-19th)
• The Texas Invitational (November 30th-December 3rd)
• The 2017 Notre Dame Shamrock Invite (January 27th-28th)

The women’s team will head to the Big Ten Conference meet on 15th-18th, with the men competing a week later on February 22nd-25th. Swimmers who qualify for NCAAs will then close the season at the 2017 NCAA Championships on March 15th-18th for the women and March 22nd-25th for the men.

This season, the women will bring back NCAA individual scorers and now-seniors Danielle Valley and Chase Kinney, who were a force for the Badgers in the freestyle races. They’ll also get a boost from transfer Cierra Runge, who will join the program after swimming in her first Olympics for Team USA this summer.

Competing in their senior season for the men’s team this year will be Brett Pinfold and Matthew Hutchins, who each scored individually at 2016 NCAAs. Hutchins, a 2016 Olympian for New Zealand, placed in the top 8 in both the 500 and 1650 freestyles at 2016 NCAAs, with his highest finish being 3rd in the mile.

WISCONSIN SWIMMING & DIVING 2016-17 SCHEDULE: