TicketsJan. 12, 2012
CINCINNATI - The University of Cincinnati swimming and diving teams will compete in its first two meets of 2012 on Friday and Saturday.
The Bearcats will travel to Oxford, Ohio on Friday for a 5 p.m. matchup against Miami (Ohio) at Nixon Aquatics Center. UC will then turn around and square off against Louisville and Eastern Michigan at 11 a.m. Saturday at Cincinnati St. Xavier High School's Keating Natatorium.
Friday's meet marks the second trip the Bearcats will make to Oxford during the 2011-12 season after competing in the Miami Redhawks Invitational Dec. 1-3.
The Cincinnati women placed third overall out of eight teams at the Redhawks Invite, while Miami placed first, outscoring the Bearcats 2,637 to 1,159. The UC men's team finished fifth overall out of eight teams with 944.5 points, while the Miami men placed one spot ahead, fourth overall, after accumulating 1,156 points.
Cincinnati should get a boost the time around against Miami after swimming without one of its top performers, freshman Helena Pikhartova (Prague, Czech Republic/Gymnazium Jana Nerudy), the UC record holder in the 200-yard breaststroke. Pikhartova missed the Miami Invite because she was competing at the AT&T USA Swimming Long Course Nationals at Georgia Tech Aquatic Center in Atlanta, Ga.
Senior Josefin Wede (Landskrona, Sweden/Gripenskolan/Auburn), the UC record holder in the 200-yard breaststroke, produced Cincinnati's lone individual champion at the Miami Invite after she won the 200 breast with a time of 2 minutes, 17.61 seconds, an all-time top 10 school mark.
Saturday's meet against Louisville and Eastern Michigan, scheduled from 11 a.m. until 4 p.m., was relocated to St. Xavier High School because Keating Aquatics Center, UC's on-campus pool, is unavailable due to issues with the lighting system. The diving portion of Saturday's meet will be held at Louisville's Ralph Wright Natatorium.
Louisville poses a tough challenge for the Bearcats, as the Cardinals boast top-25 rankings for both their men's (12) and women's (19) teams. The last time Cincinnati and Louisville met, the Bearcats men dropped a 214-69 decision and the UC women fell by a 211-83 margin at Wright Natatorium on Jan. 15, 2011.
Eastern Michigan, coming off a second-place finish at the Eastern Michigan Invitational on Dec. 2, faces Xavier University on Friday before competing against UC and Louisville on Saturday. Eagles junior Briana Emig turned in a pool and meet record time of 16:03.51 in the 1,650 freestyle, currently the second fastest in NCAA Division I for 2011-12, at the EMU Invite.