Emory Swimming to Wrap-Up 2010 Portion of Schedule at Miami Invitational

The Emory University swimmers will take part in their final meet of the 2010 calendar year this weekend, heading to Oxford, OH for the 17^th annual Miami University Invitational.

The Emory women will head into the meet ranked first among NCAA Division III teams in the latest College Swimming Coaches Association of America (CSCAA) Division III Swimming & Diving Team Poll.  The men are currently ranked third in the poll.

As has been the case for most of Emory’s meets this season, the Eagles will be facing primarily NCAA Division I schools with Miami University, Wright State University, the University of Cincinnati, Ohio State University, Oakland University and the Florida International University women all scheduled to attend.  Also competing will be NCAA Division III Denison University, whose men and women each finished second at the 2010 NCAA Championships.

Among the competing teams on the men’s side, Ohio State will enter the meet ranked eighth in Division I, while Oakland is ranked 12th among Division I Mid-Major programs and Denison is second in Division III.  For the women, in the Division I poll, Ohio State is ranked 21^st, in Division I Mid-Major poll, Miami is ranked second, Oakland is ranked 19^th and Wright State and Florida International each received votes, and Denison is ranked second in the Division III poll.

The meet will feature 20 events each for the men and women. The top 27 swimmers in the preliminaries advance to finals.

Last year, Emory swimmers turned in a number of strong performances in Oxford, as the squads totaled 21 NCAA Division III ‘A’ cut times, and 132 ‘B’ marks.  Emory’s men’s squad came away with a second-place finish out of eight teams at the meet, scoring 1,494 points to finish behind only Oakland University, which scored 1,756 points.  Meanwhile, the women finished third with 1,355 points, behind only Miami University (2,321) and Florida Gulf Coast University (1,438).

Among the Eagles’ swimmers returning who had success at the meet last season are senior Liz Horvat (NCAA ‘A’ cut times in the 500-yard freestyle, 1,650-yard freestyle and 400-yard individual medley), junior Anne Culpepper (NCAA ‘A’ cut times in the 200-yard backstroke and 500-yard freestyle), senior April Whitley (NCAA ‘A’ cut times in the 100-yard and 200-yard breaststrokes, senior Amy Minowitz (NCAA ‘A’ cut time in the 1,650-yard freestyle) and sophomore Peter O’Brien (NCAA ‘A’ cut time in the 200-yard breastroke).  Emory also received automatic qualifying times from its women’s 200-yard medley, 200-yard freestyle and 400-yard freestyle relay teams at last year’s meet.

The Miami Invitational starts at 6:00 PM on Thursday, December 2^nd at the Nixon Aquatic Center at the Miami University Recreation Center. Preliminaries on Friday and Saturday begin at 9:00 AM with finals following both nights at 6:00 PM.