Aug. 16, 2018
By Katherine Harvath
Notre Dame, Ind. — The Notre Dame men’s and women’s swimming and diving head coach Mike Litzinger announced the schedule for the upcoming 2018-19 season Thursday afternoon.
“2018-19 will be another exciting and highly competitive season. Our schedule is a great mix of highly ranked teams from the ACC, B1G, and SEC Conferences. It is the type of schedule that lends itself to competition on the highest of levels, and will prepare our teams for excellence at the NCAA level,” Coach Litzinger said.
The season opens in Bloomington, Indiana, where the Irish take on Indiana, Kentucky and Missouri in a quad-meet. Last season in Bloomington, the Irish saw great success with the women sweeping the competition and the men splitting the weekend. The team then travels to Georgia Tech before two consecutive weeks at home.
“Opening with Indiana (#3M, #9W) and Kentucky (#13W), will certainly set the competitive bar high from the start. Following up with three consecutive weekends At Georgia Tech(#25M), home with Purdue, and a tri-meet with Virginia Tech(#21M) and Pittsburgh will give be a challenge but nothing we can’t handle,” Coach Litzinger added.
The Irish round out the first half of the season at the ACC/Big Ten Challenge November 10-11 before the annual Fall Invitational at Ohio State.
To start the second half of the season, the team will split contests with the women competing in a tri-meet against Illinois and Iowa in Champaign, Illinois while the men face Iowa in Iowa City, Iowa. The Irish will return home to Rolfs Aquatic Center January 19, 2019 as they host Florida State. The annual Shamrock Invitational will take place January 25-26 and will feature four other teams.
The final dual meet of the season sees the Irish in East Lansing, Michigan, where they compete against Michigan State in early February.
“The Iowa/Illinois meets will give us an opportunity to get the racing started, a highly competitive FSU team will come to South Bend, and our own Shamrock Invite will feature Ohio State, Iowa, Missouri State, and Akron. We will finish the dual season at Michigan State,” Coach Litzinger said.
The championship season starts with the Irish returning to Columbus, Ohio, for the Ohio State Winter Invitational. They will then head to Greensboro, North Carolina, for the ACC Championships (Feb. 20-23, women; Feb. 27-March 2, men).
After a successful 2017-18 season, the Irish look to continue on those triumphs this season, welcoming 44 returners back to the team (17 men, 27 women) and 15 newcomers (8 men, 7 newcomers).
“All-in-all we are looking to continue that climb into the elite level of the NCAA, and this year is no exception,” Coach Litzinger concluded.
–ND–
Katherine Harvath is currently an athletics communication assistant with Fighting Irish Media. She oversees Notre Dame cross country/track & field, swimming and diving and men’s tennis. She is a 2018 graduate of Bowling Green State University, where she studied sport management.