Tulane University
FIU
Swimming & Diving Hits The Road to Open 2016-17 Season
Oct 13, 2016 | Women's Swimming and Diving
| Dual-A-Pool-Ooza: Tulane vs. FIU, Denver and Rice | |
|---|---|
| Â When | Â Friday, Oct. 14, 4:00 PM CT | Saturday, Oct. 15, 10:00 AM CT, 3:00 PM |
| Â Where | Â Rice University Gibbs Recreation and Wellness Center | Houston, TX |
|  Social Media |  Twitter: @GreenWaveSwim  Facebook: @GreenWaveSwimming |
NEW ORLEANS - Tulane swimming & diving is set to open the 2016-17 season Friday, Oct. 14, as it travels to Rice to compete at the Dual-A-Pool-Ooza event. The Green Wave will swim against FIU, Denver and Rice in three dual meets across Friday and Saturday.Â
"As a team, we're very much looking forward to the meets we have this weekend against Rice, FIU and Denver," Tulane head coach Katie Robinson said. "They are strong programs and they'll definitely challenge our top-level athletes, as well as the depth of our program. We're very competitive and we like to win, so we're going to go for it."Â
The Wave will kick the weekend event with a matchup at 4 p.m. Friday against FIU, before clashing against Denver and Rice at 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. Saturday, respectively. The varied starting times, as well as the outdoor venue environment will present unique challenges for the Green Wave in its season opener.Â
"It's a different event order, so we've had to be creative and play around with our typical lineup to make sure we're utilizing our team members in the best way to ensure a great result at the end," Robinson said. "It's an outdoor meet and that brings another slew of challenges, too. It's a little bit funky, but it's fun because it mixes things up."
Tulane's 2016 season concluded with a second-place finish at the American Athletic Conference Championships, marking the program's best finish since 2005. Green Wave swimmers broke school records on 18 occasions, earned nine individual medals and set more than 60 personal bests in the four-day event.ÂTulane returns five of its 10 swimmers who earned spots on the 2016 AAC Swimming and Diving All-Conference Teams last season, including junior Emma Lincoln, Kaitlin Simpson and sophomores Shelly Zelnick, Paris Zhang and Natalie Clausen. Seniors Joy Jason and Ellie Sills will be expected to provide veteran leadership to the young team, that boasts seven incoming freshman competitors, including Olivia Johnson, who participated in the 400 IM at the US Olympic Swim Team Trails in Omaha, Nebraska this summer.
"I'm really excited for our seniors and what they have to offer our team from a leadership perspective," Robinson said. "I believe that they've grown immensely and it's been neat to see their growth throughout these four years. They're going to offer a lot of insight and advice to our underclassmen with different outlooks on their career, as well as teach the underclassmen how to have a great attitude."
While the meet officially kicks off the 2016-17 season for the Green Wave, Robinson expects strong performances to set the tone for the season and in-conference meets.
"We've had some great practices this year, and we've seen massive amounts of improvements," Robinson said. "This meet provides feedback. We're going to pay attention to the results and make sure we learn something regardless of the wins or losses we have."
Updates from this weekend's meet will be available on Twitter at @GreenWaveSwim.
Players Mentioned
