Kentucky Swimming & Diving Announces 2021-22 Schedule
LEXINGTON, Ky. – After a historic 2020-21 campaign that brought the program’s first-ever Southeastern Conference championship title back to Lexington, University of Kentucky swimming and diving has released a competitive schedule for the 2021-22 season.
This season will feature five home meets as well as several matchups with many of the nation’s premier programs. The Wildcats will face six teams that all finished in the top 15 of the final CSCAA poll last year, with five of those squads posting top-15 finishes at their respective NCAA Championships in 2021.
“We have a highly-competitive schedule this year, but that’s exactly what we want for our student-athletes,” said head coach Lars Jorgensen. “We intend to expose them to high-level teams during the season to prepare them for the competition we will face at the SEC and NCAA Championships. We are excited to get the season underway and build upon the success we had last year.”
The Wildcats will open the season with the annual blue/white meet on Sept. 24 at the Lancaster Aquatic Center. During the spirited intrasquad meet, the coaching staff splits the program into men’s and women’s blue and white squads for a friendly – but fast – racing environment.
UK officially begins dual meet action on Oct. 6 in Bloomington, Ind. to take on Indiana and Indiana State. The women will participate in a tri-meet against the Hoosiers and the Sycamores, while the Wildcat men will only face Indiana. The Hoosier men concluded last year in ninth in the CSCAA poll with the women’s team taking 15th, finishing sixth and 15th, respectively, at the NCAA Championships.
Just two days after racing the Hoosiers, Kentucky returns home to compete against Miami Ohio in a men’s-only meet on Oct. 8. The following week, Ohio makes their way to Lexington for a matchup versus the Wildcat women on Oct. 15.
Kentucky then hits the road to participate in a two-day meet against SEC foe Auburn and Atlantic Coast Conference powerhouse NC State in what will be a tightly-contested battle. The meet, which will be hosted by the Tigers in Auburn, Ala., is slated for Oct. 22-23. The No. 6 Wolfpack men took eighth at NCAAs in 2021, and the fifth-ranked women’s team were the national runners-up. Auburn men and women were both ranked No. 25 at the end of last year.
After a week off, UK is back with home-pool advantage on Nov. 5 as in-conference rival Tennessee comes to town. The Vols and Lady Vols both sat at No. 11 in the final poll, posting respective 20th- and 10th-place finishes at NCAAs.
UK will then prepare for the Ohio State Invitational from Nov. 18-20 in Columbus, Ohio. The mid-season taper meet typically features several teams from across the country which will be announced later this fall.
The Wildcats will partake in winter training throughout December, and although there are no dual meets during that month, qualified swimmers will travel to Greensboro, N.C. on Dec. 1-4 for the Toyota U.S. Open featuring the country’s fastest swimmers.
UK returns to Columbus to commence the spring semester with yet another competitive tri-meet against Texas and Ohio State on Jan. 14-15. The Longhorn men won their 15th NCAA title in 2021 as the women’s program finished third at the national meet, earning the same spots in the final rankings. Both of the Buckeyes’ programs finished seventh at NCAAs, with the men holding the No. 12 spot and the women at No. 10 in the polls.
The annual Battle of the Bluegrass will be held on Jan. 22 when the Wildcats make their way to Louisville. Last season, the Cardinal men finished fifth in the CSCAA rankings while the women’s team concluded the year in 13th, posting the same placement on the national stage.
UK will then race at home for the first time in nearly three months as the team hosts Cincinnati on Jan. 28. The final dual meet before championship season will also serve as Senior Day.
As the team prepares for post-season competition, select UK swimmers will have the opportunity to race at the Ohio State First Chance Meet. The Wildcats will once again trek north as the meet is set for Feb. 12-13 in Columbus.
Differing from 2021, the SEC Championships will resume having both the men’s and women’s meet held simultaneously. This season’s conference meet will be hosted by Tennessee and returns to a five-day format, taking place Feb. 15-19 at the Allan Jones Aquatic Center in Knoxville.
Following the conference championships, the women return to Columbus for the fourth time on Feb. 27 while the men travel to Athens, Ga. on March 5-6 for their respective Last Chance meets. Kentucky divers will compete at the NCAA Zone C Diving Championships on March 10-12 with the location to be announced at a later date.
UK will seek to build upon their 11th-place finish last year at the Women’s NCAA Championships on March 16-19, and the men will aim to improve on their 2021 finish at the Men’s NCAA Championships on March 23-26. Both the women’s and men’s meets are held at the McAuley Aquatic Center, a world-class venue on Georgia Tech’s campus in Atlanta.
Kentucky women clinched the SEC title in 2021 with a program-record 1,124 points. They also finished 11th with 152 points at the NCAA Championships, marking their best team finish in school history as well as the most points scored. On the men’s side, UK finished seventh at the conference meet with 759 points, the highest score in program history.
The UK women’s team finished seventh and the men received votes in the CSCAA rankings at the conclusion of the 2020-21 season.
For the latest on the Kentucky swimming and diving program, follow @UKSwimDive on Twitter and on Instagram, on Facebook and on the web at UKathletics.com.
