HONOLULU – The University of Hawai`i men's and women's swimming and diving teams each travel to Texas to take part in its conference championships this week. Both the WAC Championships for the women and the Conference USA Championships for the men begin on Wednesday, Feb. 24 and run through Saturday, Feb. 27.
The WAC Championships begin on Wednesday with platform diving which will be conducted at the Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swim Center as Josh Davis Natatorium in San Antonio, Texas, does not have a diving tower. This is the only event that will be conducted outside of San Antonio. On Wednesday night, both the 200 medley and 800 free relays will be contested at Josh Davis Natatorium.
The Conference USA Championships will be at the CRWC Natatorium in Houston, Texas, hosted by the University of Houston for the second straight year. The championships kick off on Wednesday with the men's platform diving and two relay finals.
Conference Finishes
At last year's conference championships, the UH men's team finished second behind SMU for the third straight year. UH totaled 769 points at the Conference USA Championships, while SMU finished with 921 points. The women's team finished fifth in the WAC with 463.5 points, while the Nevada Wolf Pack took their third straight WAC Championship with 639 points.
Young And Old Combination
The men's team features several young swimmers who will be competing in their first Conference USA Championships, mixed in with several veteran swimmers from last year's second place team. Sophomore
Lazar Bogdanovski returns after finishing second in the 200-yard backstroke with a time of 1:47.87 on the final day of competition. Senior
Davis Kane also returns after finishing second in last year's 100-yard freestyle (44.55).
Diving At WAC
Last year,
Emma Friesen was named the WAC Diver of the Year, giving the Rainbow Wahine their seventh WAC Diver of the Year award in the past eight seasons. Rainbow Wahine coach
Mike Brown was also voted Diving Coach of the Year for the fourth consecutive year and the fifth time in his career.
WAC Streaming Video
The WAC will be streaming the finals of all four nights. Viewers can sign up by visiting
www.WAC.tv. Viewers that sign up, will to watch Wednesday relays for free. The remaining three nights can be viewed for a subscription of $5.95 be able per night or a full championship package can be purchased for $9.95.
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