Heading into the Princeton Invitational, the Utah swimming team hasn’t competed since its meet against UNLV more than three weeks ago.
All that head coach Greg Winslow is hoping is that some good can come from the layoff.
“Hopefully what the break does is make us hungry to be racing again,” Winslow said. “We were really happy with the UNLV meet and looking forward to racing again.”
The Utah team will have the chance to swim against some of the nation’s top swimming programs during the three-day meet.
Florida, Rutgers, Columbia, Brown, Rider University and host school Princeton will all be competing. Florida and Rutgers have both been ranked nationally in the top five for the past couple of seasons.
“Our biggest goal is to just get in and race some teams we haven’t seen before, some of the top teams in the country,” Winslow said. “This meet will be really good competition outside of conference and a good measuring stick for us.”
Although Winslow is hoping the entire team performs well, he is looking for the freshmen and seniors specifically to have big performances at the meet.
“I’m really excited to see our freshmen swim,” Winslow said. “This is their first big invitational and they know what is expected of them. Now this will be good for them to get big meet experience.”
As for the seniors, he said he hopes the meet serves as a tune-up going into the home stretch of their final season and motivates them to really shine.
After Princeton, the Utes have almost a six-week break before they will race again. The team wants to use the invitational as the springboard it needs to get through the break.
“We’re looking for some kids to have their best times all season and really give the team some momentum going into the Christmas break,” Winslow said.
Competition begins today and goes through Sunday in New Jersey.