NORMAL, Ill. – Illinois State head swimming coach Steve Paska announced the Redbird swimming and diving team's 2014-15 schedule Wednesday. The schedule includes four home meets and trips to Florida and Puerto Rico.
"I am very excited for the 2014-15 season," said Paska, who enters his 30th season as head coach. "As I anxiously await the start of our first segment of the season, I'm very impressed with the work ethic the team has put in during preseason workouts. The 2014-15 schedule is definitely a tough one, but I'm confident we will tackle the challenge of competing against some outstanding swimming and diving programs."
The team will kick off the season with the annual Red and White Intrasquad Meet Oct. 4 at Horton Pool. The Redbirds will hit the road the following weekend to compete at the Dennis Stark Relays, hosted by Notre Dame, Oct. 10.
The Redbirds will host a dual meet with Truman State (Oct. 17), and a double dual with Illinois and Southern Illinois (Nov. 1). The team will travel to Miami, Florida for duals with Florida International (Nov. 7) and Miami (Nov. 8), before heading to Northern Iowa (Nov. 15). The team will compete at the Zippy Invitational, hosted by Akron, Dec. 5-7.
The team will then travel to San Juan, Puerto Rico, for the Copa Coqui Invitational, Jan. 4.
"This will be the first time we travel to Florida to compete against Florida International and Miami," Paska said. "We will also be swimming at the Zippy Invitational, where we were able to win the team title last year."
ISU also travels to meets at Washington-St. Louis (Jan. 16), Butler (Jan. 25) and Evansville (Jan. 31). The Redbirds' final home meet of the season will be Jan. 24, when they host Nebraska-Omaha. The team's 11 seniors will be honored as part of Senior Day festivities at the Jan. 24 meet.
The Missouri Valley Conference Championship, hosted by Southern Illinois, will be held Feb. 18-21.
The ISU swimming and diving team features 11 seniors, including All-American Wenting Zhang and co-captains Keely Hunt, Alexis Nash and Marissa Yontz. They are joined by six juniors, eight sophomores and 10 freshmen.
Zhang finished sixth in the 3-meter diving event and 15th in 1-meter diving at the 2014 NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships.
"Wenting did an outstanding job of putting Illinois State on the map. I'm clearly proud of her athletic accomplishments, but in addition to those achievements, she also earned the Scholar All-America Award from the College Swimming Coaches Association of America," said head diving coach Phil Hoffmann. "I'm very excited about the changes we made to our schedule this year and we are looking forward to the trips to Florida International and Miami, for our girls to be exposed to high level of competition, which will help prepare us for success come February."
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