AUBURN, Ala. – For the first time all season, the Auburn men's and women's swimming and diving programs will travel together to compete in the Wolfpack Invite at the Greensboro Aquatic Center this week.
Neither the men nor the women have lost a dual meet to start the season, but this five-team meet that spans three days will provide a much more difficult test on both sides. The Tigers will be joined by North Carolina State, Duke, Arizona State and Wisconsin. All five teams on the men's side are ranked in the top 25, and four of the five women's teams are in the top 25.
"It's only a five-team meet," Auburn head coach Gary Taylor said. "There are going to be a lot of chances to get our athletes in at night in prelims. At the same time, it's going to bring a really competitive environment. It should be a lot of fun."
For Taylor, it's a homecoming of sorts as he returns to the state of North Carolina to face an N.C. State program where he coached for six years and won multiple ACC championships.
Now in his second year at Auburn, he has the Tigers moving in the right direction. The men, currently ranked No. 23, are 2-0 this season with convincing wins over LSU and Navy. The women are ranked No. 13 and following a second-place finish at the SMU Classic, they too are 2-0 in dual meets with wins against LSU and Arkansas.
However, this will be a new challenge. The Wolfpack Invite is set up similarly to the SEC and NCAA championships with prelims in the morning followed by finals in the evening. There will be three straight days of competition, beginning Thursday.
"What I would love to see is three days of – regardless of situation or adversity – we get up time and time again and perform and finish the meet out well," Taylor said. "It gives us an idea from a coaching standpoint, have we prepared our athletes well? Are they able to handle the environment? And then are they able to handle a swim-after-swim competition over three days?
"It's going to be an interesting weekend, and I think we're really excited to see what those three days hold for our programs."
Here's a look at the schedule of events for all three days.
Thursday, Nov. 21
200 Freestyle Relay
500 Freestyle
200 Individual Medley
50 Freestyle
Diving
- Women 3 Meter
- Men 1 Meter
400 Medley Relay
Friday, Nov. 22
200 Medley Relay
400 Individual Medley
100 Butterfly
200 Freestyle
100 Breaststroke
100 Backstroke
Diving
- Women 1 Meter
- Men 3 Meter
800 Freestyle Relay
Saturday, Nov. 23
1650 Freestyle
200 Backstroke
100 Freestyle
200 Breaststroke
200 Butterfly
10 Meter Diving
400 Freestyle Relay
Prelims on Thursday will begin at 8:30 a.m. CT with the finals scheduled for later that day at 4:30 p.m. CT. Live stats for the meet will be available here.