Notre Dame closes out its fall season with two meets in two states, as the swimmers headed down to Austin, Texas, for the Texas Invitational, while the divers traveled to Iowa City, Iowa, for the Hawkeye Invitational this weekend.
This will be the third consecutive year that the Notre Dame divers head to Iowa City. The Irish will compete against full squads from Iowa, Denver, Washington State and Wisconsin-Milwaukee and diving-only squads from Iowa State, Nebraska, Northern Iowa, Ohio State and Michigan State.
Last season, the swimmers and divers combined to dominate the invitational, scoring 823 points and distancing themselves from second place by 80 points.
In preliminary competition Thursday at the Texas Invitational, junior Genevieve Bradford and sophomore Katie Miller placed 10th and 11th respectively in the 200-yard individual medley, qualifying them both for the finals. Additionally, senior Courtney Whyte finished with a time of 54.19 to place 18th in the 100-yard butterfly, while junior Catherine Galleti followed close behind her in 22nd place with a time of 54.44. Both advanced to the finals today.
The Irish are without their top swimmer, senior Emma Reaney, this weekend, as she competed in the FINA Short Course World Championship in Doha, Qatar. On Wednesday, Reaney swam in the preliminaries of the 50-meter breaststroke, qualifying for the finals in the last possible spot. Yesterday, she moved up to place sixth with a time of 30.05. She will race in the 100-meter breaststroke Friday and finish the weekend’s competition with the 200-meter breaststroke Saturday.
Meanwhile, the Irish will begin the finals today at the Texas Invitational in Austin, Texas, while the team's divers will go through qualifying today and Saturday, before the finals Sunday.
