AUBURN, Ala. – The Auburn swimming and diving team will be back in the James E. Martin Aquatics this week where the Tigers will host Florida as part of the Auburn Fall Invitational. It will be the first home meet for the Tigers since the SEC Championships in February.
"First and foremost, I have a lot of people around me from an administrative and medical standpoint who worked really hard to allow this to happen," Auburn head coach Gary Taylor said. "I really appreciate the staff as well and our student-athletes taking the proper measures and precautions to allow us to compete."
The three-day invitational will begin Wednesday and features a total of 42 events. It will take the format of a championship-style meet that consists of prelim, diving and final sessions each of the three days. The top-18 prelim swims or scores will move on to A, B and C evening final heats, with only the A and B finals being scored. For the relays, the 1,650 free and platform diving, there will be no prelims.
Auburn will square off against a Florida team who won the men's SEC championship last year and finished second on the women's side. The Gators once again have two teams ranked inside the top 10 this year with the men at No. 3 and the women at No. 10.
"You get an opportunity to compete against some great performers in the pool and on the boards," Taylor said. "I want to see how our team responds. I felt like we saw some things at Orange & Blue and we really saw some things against UGA two weeks ago. Some were really positive, and we can definitely grow from. Some were frustrating, and you want to see us begin to learn and grow from those moments.
"There is a little bit of a pressure situation to this. So who responds in a positive manner? Who are some people who start to step to the forefront for both our men and women and start to assert themselves as leaders not only on the pool deck but in competition?"
The Tigers, who dropped both dual meets at Georgia earlier this month, are also ranked on both sides. The men are No. 22 while the women opened the season at No. 19.
For this week's invitational, prelims on Wednesday and Thursday will begin at 9:30 a.m. CT followed by diving at 1 p.m. and finals at 6 p.m. On Friday, the schedule will be moved up with prelims at 9 a.m. CT, diving at 11 a.m. and finals at 4 p.m.
Live results for the Auburn Fall Invitational will be available on auburntigers.com and to subscribers on the MeetMobile app. Diving results will also be on divemeets.com.
SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
Wednesday, Nov. 18
200 Freestyle Relay
500 Freestyle
200 IM
50 Freestyle
400 Medley Relay
Diving
- Women's 3 Meter
- Men's 1 Meter
Thursday, Nov. 19
200 Medley Relay
400 IM
100 Butterfly
200 Freestyle
100 Breaststroke
100 Backstroke
800 Freestyle Relay
Diving
- Women's 1 Meter
- Men's 3 Meter
Friday, Nov. 20
1650 Freestyle
200 Backstroke
100 Freestyle
200 Breaststroke
200 Butterfly
400 Freestyle Relay
Diving
- Women's Platform
- Men's Platform
S&D welcomes Florida for Auburn Fall Invitational
