Sept. 11, 2008
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – First-year head coach Brian Barnes recently announced the release of the Notre Dame women’s swimming and diving schedule for the 2008-09 season. The Irish will roll out the carpet for four home meets and hit the road for four more throughout the campaign.
“The schedule presents a nice mix of opponents from different conferences, but the highlight is the fact that the BIG EAST Championships are being held right down the road in Indianapolis,” Barnes said.
The 2009 BIG EAST Men’s and Women’s Swimming & Diving Championships will be held at the IU Natatorium in Indianapolis, Ind. Home to the 2008 Olympic Diving Trials, the swim center is part of the IUPUI Sports Complex on the campus of Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. The championships will be held Feb. 18-21. Notre Dame seeks its 13th consecutive conference title at the 2009 edition of the meet.
The Dennis Stark Relays (Oct. 3) will be followed three weeks later with a trip to Washington State (Oct. 24-25) for a two-day meet. Notre Dame plays host to Pittsburgh (Oct. 31) and Purdue (Nov. 8) on consecutive weekends before heading to Columbus, Ohio, for the Ohio State Invitational (Dec. 5-7).
A winter training trip to the Bahamas will be followed by a tri-meet in Evanston, Ill., with host Northwestern and Toledo (Jan. 10). The second BIG EAST opponent on the schedule, Louisville, plays host to the Irish on Jan. 17.
The Shamrock Invitational (Jan. 23-24) should serve as a tune-up session as Denver and Michigan State come to town before the Irish take off for the league meet a few weeks later.
The NCAA Zone Diving competition is slated for March 13-14 in Minneapolis, Minn. Texas A&M in College Station, Texas, will be the site of the 2009 NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships held March 19-21.
All home meets will be held at the Rolfs Aquatic Center.
Notre Dame finished the 2007-08 season with a 4-7 dual-meet record and sent three student-athletes to the NCAAs (Christa Riggins, Samantha Maxwell and Amywren Miller). Nine members of last year’s squad participated in the United States Olympics Trials. The Irish broke eight school records en route to winning their 12th consecutive BIG EAST title and return 25 monogram winners while welcoming five newcomers this season.
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