Missouri’s swimming and diving team will compete against other Big 12 Conference schools for the first time this season when it travels down to Dallas for the Southwest Plunge this weekend. Other schools competing include Texas, Texas A&M, SMU and TCU.
It’s the first test against stark competition all season, and the Tigers will use this meet to gauge how they stack up compared to other top swimmers in the nation.
“This weekend we get to see some pretty good swimmers, and we’ll get to see how we’ll measure up,” coach Greg Rhodenbaugh said. “We’re young, and I think we’ll get excited and kind of rise to the occasion. This is our first real meet of the season. The last meets at the beginning were kind of fun meets.”
The Texas A&M squad, in particular, looks to provide the Tigers one of their biggest challenges this weekend. Ranked in the top 10 teams in the nation, Rhodenbaugh said the Aggies’s women’s team has few weaknesses.
“It’s going to be fun for our girls, especially, to swim against them,” Rhodenbaugh said. “They’re really deep. They have a lot of good swimmers in everything. They don’t have any holes. But we have a nice core group of girls who should do pretty well against them. It’ll be to win some events against one of the best teams in the nation.”
The women’s side will have to do it without one of its top divers, as sophomore Loren Figueroa will be watching from the pool deck due to a knee injury. Figueroa underwent knee surgery this offseason after a hyperextension, yet lingering problems have remained an issue.
“We don’t have Loren Figueroa, who’s one of the best divers in the nation, so our other divers will have to step up and compete, and that will be good for them,” Rhodenbaugh said. “We’ll get to see where the girls are.”
Junior diver Sharon Finn said the Southwest Plunge would also present a unique opportunity for many athletes on the team to return to their home state.
“There’s a lot of people from Texas from the team, which makes this meet very fun,” Finn said. “Obviously, if you’re from Texas, you love Texas, so we are all really excited to go there.”
Rhodenbaugh said the travel distance to Dallas should not be too great a factor, and could actually be viewed as a training tool for later in the season.
“Traveling is tiring for a big group of people,” Rhodenbaugh said. “We’re coming from the furthest away, and for the Texas teams, and SMU especially, they only have to drive like 30 minutes and they’re there, so it may be a little disadvantage. But this doesn’t happen as much toward the end of the season, and one of the most important meets this season, which is the Mizzou Invite is actually here, so it can also be kind of a good training tool.”
Tiredness aside, the Tigers know they must have a strong showing to send a message for later in the season.
“We’ll be seeing them again later in the year, so it’s really important to put your first foot out there and show them what we have,” senior swimmer John Higgins said. “We want them to know we’re here and that we’re ready to compete.”
