University of Houston Athletics
Conference USA Swimming & Diving Meet to Begin Thursday
2/23/2004 12:00:00 AM | Swimming & Diving
Feb. 23, 2004
HOUSTON - Some of the nation's finest collegiate swimming and diving programs will descend on Houston this week to take part in the 2004 Conference USA Women's Swimming and Diving Championship and C-USA Men's Invitational.
Hosted by the University of Houston, the C-USA meet will be held at the Campus Recreation & Wellness Center Natatorium, located on the corner of Calhoun and University on the UH campus. This will be the first time in the three-year history of the C-USA meet that it will be held at the site of a participating school.
The meet begins Thursday morning and will run through Saturday evening. Each day's action begins at 10 a.m. with the preliminaries. Once the preliminaries are completed, the diving competition will start around 1 p.m., each day with the swimming finals slated to start around 6 p.m.
All-session tickets are available at the UH Ticket Office or through www.UHcougars.com. Prices are $25 for adults and $10 for youth, identified as all students of participating C-USA schools with valid IDs and high school students and younger. Single-day tickets -- $10 for adults and $5 for youth - will not be available until Thursday morning, the first day of the meet.
East Carolina enters the meet as the defending women's champions, while the TCU men's program will look to make it three in a row at the Men's Invitational.
Cincinnati's Emma Gustafsson returns after winning the 100- and 200-yard breaststroke events a year ago, while East Carolina's Diane Parker hopes to defend her championships in the 200-yard individual medley and 100-yard butterfly.
Houston's Azul Almazan looks to win her second consecutive diving championship on the platform, while newcomers Anna Kiess or Rachel Gitelson hope to win UH's third straight C-USA Freshman Diver of the Year accolade.
On the men's side, TCU's Craig Chapman was the 2003 champion in both the 100- and 200-yard backstroke events. Louisville diver Sean Wilkinson is the only diving champion in league history, sweeping the 1- and 3-meter springboard and platform events.
Players Mentioned
