The swimming and diving teams part ways and will compete in two major invitationals over the weekend. The swimmers will be in Long Beach, Calif., for the Arena Invite and the divers will be in Tucson, Ariz., for the Wildcat Invite.
The Arena Invite, hosted by University of California San Diego, features some of the best teams in the west and fast swimming.
“At invites we have to be able to compete day-after-day and be able to adapt to a new surrounding,” said swim team captain Ryan Krause, from San Diego. “We can’t overthink anything like the pool being cold, any problems with goggles or nerves. We have to put it aside and think of the race only.”
Schools competing at the invite include UNLV, Stanford, Air Force Academy, Hawaii, Arizona State and more.
“When we compete we want to make sure our head is on straight,” Krause said. “We want to focus and use all our ability and training to perform at our best.”
The invite began Thursday night and continues through Saturday. It will be three full days of fast racing, and live results for the Arena Invitational are available.
BYU’s divers head to a big invite hosted by University of Arizona, with teams from Fresno State, SDSU, Utah, USC, Boise State and more. The Wildcat Invite begins today with preliminaries and will finish on Saturday with the finals.
“It’s important for the athletes to get a good warmup and make sure we’re loose,” Krause said. “No matter what race, you need to go in well-rested and confident.”
BYU coach Keith Russell said he is looking forward to the big competition at the Wildcat Invite and coming back an even stronger team.
“If we didn’t do as well as we wanted the first time, we recap, figure out how to fix it and apply it the next time,” Krause said. “We have a whole weekend to show our stuff.”
Follow the Cougars all weekend with live results for the Wildcat Diving Invitational at byucougars.com.
