Nov. 30, 2006
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – The No. 19 University of Notre Dame women’s swimming and diving team (3-0) will split the squad this weekend and send the divers to the Ohio State Invitational from Dec. 1-3. The Notre Dame swimmers are headed to prestigious US Open Swim in West Lafayette, Ind. from Nov. 30-Dec. 2.
The divers will compete at McCorkle Aquatic Pavilion against divers from 12 other schools. Among the other schools competing are Minnesota, Purdue, South Carolina, Denver, Iowa, Miami and Ohio State. The preliminaries for the first day of diving will begin on Friday, Dec. 1 between swimming sessions at 2 p.m. The diving on Saturday, Dec. 2 is set to begin at 1 p.m. The Notre Dame divers will conclude their meet on Sunday, Dec. 3 starting at noon.
This year’s U.S. Open Swim is the last of its kind as next year it becomes the U.S. National Short-Course Championships. In this its final season, the three-day, six session meet will feature 943 athletes including 21 Olympians. Among those competing this weekend at the Boilermaker Aquatic Center are Michael Phelps, Aaron Piersol, Ian Crocker, Amanda Weir and Katie Hoff.
The meet will begin on Thursday, Nov. 30 with the preliminaries starting at 9:30 p.m. each day. The finals will contested each evening beginning at 6 p.m.
All-session tickets to the U.S. Open are available for $25 (adult) or $15 (children and students) and may be purchased through the Purdue Athletic Ticket Office at 1-800-49SPORT. Single-session are also available for purchase.
The Irish will send their best swimmers, including senior Katie Carroll (Toledo, Ohio/Notre Dame Academy) and junior Caroline Johnson (Springfield, Mo./Glendale), to the meet in the ultra competitive field.
This is the last of two events the Irish women will compete in during the fall season and will begin the spring season at the Hawai’i Invitational starting on Friday, Jan. 5.