Badgers Head South For Texas Invite
December 01, 2005 | Women's Swimming & Diving
The Wisconsin men's and women's swimming and diving teams will head to Austin, Texas Thursday for the three-day Texas Invite. Competition takes place Thursday, Dec.1 through Saturday, Dec. 3 at the Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center.
Competing this weekend will be some of the nation's top teams, including No. 3 California, No. 5 Arizona and No. 6 Texas on the men's side, as well as No. 5 California, No. 6 Arizona and No. 7 UCLA on the women's side.
The UW women's team will face California's freshman Jessica Hardy, who was recently named to the USA swimming team that will compete at the FINA World Championship. Hardy competed in Cal's first four dual meets this season, winning five events overall. The men will face a strong Arizona team, including returning defending 200-yard freestyle national champion Simon Burnett and four other returning all-American honorees.
Last year at the invite, the women's team finished in third place with 603 points, while the men took sixth with 323 points. Amalia Sarnecki recorded an NCAA 'A' time of 2:13.46 in the 200-yard breaststroke in the prelims but edged that with a second-place, final-round time of 2:12.01, which cracked her own UW record of 2:12.37. Divers Amanda Witte, Cassie Kubly and Justin Bonner had top-10 finishes in the platform, as Witte took eighth (320.20), Kubly took 10th (310.75) and Bonner ended up in ninth (256.30).
The Badgers last competed in the Minnesota Invitational on November 18-20. The men finished second, behind Minnesota, with 678.5 points, while the women finished fourth, behind Notre Dame, Minnesota and Kansas, with 664 points.
This weekend, competition is set to begin at 10am on Thursday, followed by finals at 6pm. Prelims will be held at 10am and finals will be held at 6pm on both Friday and Saturday.
