AUBURN, Ala. – The Gary Taylor era of Auburn Swimming and Diving begins on Saturday with a season-opening women's only meet against Florida Gulf Coast at the Martin Aquatics Center at 10 a.m.
"We are really excited about this week and I'm looking forward to my first opportunity to lead this program against outside competition," Taylor said. "There is some excitement in the unknown. We've done the work for six to eight weeks now and the athletes are hungry and ready to get up on the blocks and compete."
The teams will compete in 11 swimming and two springboard diving events. The swimming events contested will be, in order: the 200 medley relay, 1,000 free, 200 free, 50 free, 400 IM, 100 fly, 100 free, 100 back, 500 free, 100 breast and 400 free relay.
"Florida Gulf has some strong swimmers and some really formidable relays," Taylor said. "I have a lot of respect for that program and what they do on a yearly basis. They have already had a couple of competitions and (head coach Dave Rollins) knows what his team looks like.
"We are in a little different situation," Taylor said. "This will be our first competition. We don't know what that game day experience is like from an athlete standpoint or even a coaching standpoint. We have some ideas but now we get to go figure that out."
Auburn returns six All-Americans (Erin Falconer, Alison Maillard, Jessica Merritt, Julie Meynen, Sonnele Oeztuerk and Aly Tetzloff) and 11 women that scored points at last year's SEC Championships.
Both teams will wear pink in their attire, with Auburn wearing pink suites and white caps in an effort to promote awareness for breast cancer.
Admission to the meet is free. The first 100 fans through the doors will receive a free pink Auburn Swim & Dive tumbler.
Live results will be available through auburntigers.com and divemeets.com.