The Wisconsin men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams are rested
and psyched for one of the country’s most elite meets, the annual Texas Invitational.

The No. 10-ranked women and No. 17-ranked men will have plenty of competition this weekend as they battle some of the fastest swimming teams in the country.

The Invite features five of the nation’s top ranked men’s teams — Arizona, Cal, Michigan, USC and Texas — and three top 10 women’s teams — Arizona, Texas, and Wisconsin.

“This meet is very important for our teams,” assistant men’s and women’s coach Kari Woodall said. “It’s a good indication of where we are as a young team. We are trying to make as many NCAA automatic qualifying times as we can, so in turn it will give us momentum going into our training trip in Hawaii.”
The more automatic qualifying times the Badgers obtain, the more they will be able to focus on their grueling three-week training trip in Hawaii.

The Badgers look forward to qualifying as many swimmers as possible so they can turn their attention to the national level, rather than the Big Ten level.

Wisconsin will be looking at its captains and seniors to provide leadership to motivate the young squad through its first rested meet.

“We have two people on our team with Olympic leadership,” Woodall said. “That right there brings a ton of leadership in terms of experience and how you approach the meet in general. Having such a young team, it’s nice to look up to the seniors and captains. We have five great captains. We are also looking for leadership from the huge group we took to Olympic Trials. We are coming off of a successful summer and we now have leaders in every class.”

Just like the swimmers, the Badger divers will also face fierce competition with teams from Texas, Hawaii, Arizona State and UCLA.

Men’s and women’s diving head coach Josh Seykora expects his Badgers to be competitive and prepared.

“We need to get up and compete this weekend,” Seykora said. “We have had a lot of time to prepare. It’s our last chance at a big competition to see where we are at. I’m expecting us to be able to compete and not revert back to old habits. I’m expecting us to show up and be ready to go and pay attention to detail and to dive well. This meet has some good divers and it’s a good opportunity for the freshmen to see where they are at compared to the rest of the country.”

Competition begins Thursday, Dec. 2 and runs through Saturday, Dec. 4. The Invite will feature approximately 350 swimmers and divers representing 15 different universities across the nation.