Courtesy: Bryant Athletics
SMITHFIELD, R.I. – The Bryant University swimming and diving program, as well as head coach Katie Cameron, are excited to announce their meet schedule for the 2018-19 season, highlighted by an NEC tri-meet the first weekend of November.
Both the men and women will be swimming eight combined dual meets next season, with a tri-meet scheduled for November 2 and 3 on the women’s side and separate dual meets scheduled for the following weekend.
“We are very excited to announce our competitive schedule for this season,” Cameron said. “We have been able to add a few new teams, as well as keep some great rivalries. Harold Anderson is a trials/finals meet for us, which will be a new competition for us. The goal is to extend the length of the season by having more qualify for the National Invite and NCAAs. We are out to prove this to be our best season yet!”
Bryant opens the season against the same opponent they opened with last season, taking on Boston College on the first Friday night of the season, October 12, in Chestnut Hill, Mass.
Two more road meets will follow, as the Bulldogs will swim Providence and Iona on October 19 and 26, respectively. The Bulldogs won on both the men’s and women’s side last season against all three of these opponents.
The schedules begin to differ between men and women the first weekend of November when Bryant opens the Chace Athletic Center Pool for the first time in the 2018-19 season. The women will be hosting a big Northeast Conference tri-meet on November 2 and 3, as the Bulldogs welcome in conference foes Wagner and Central Connecticut. Bryant outlasted both teams in February en route to their first conference title in program history.
The men will be swimming against New Jersey Institute of Technology during the same, two-day meet.
Different opponents will again come to Smithfield on November 11, when the Black and Gold welcome the Vermont women and Harvard men for the final dual meets of the fall semester.
The invitational season begins with another trip to the Harold Anderson Invitational, hosted by Rhode Island, November 16-18. The Bulldog men won the event for the second time in the last four seasons, while the women placed second, improving on their position from the previous season.
The final event of the 2018 calendar year comes at the annual Gompei Invitational, hosted by Worcester Polytechnic Institute. The men and women combined to finish third at the fifth-annual event. Also, this is the weekend of the USA Swimming Winter Nationals, an event that four Bulldogs traveled to a season ago.
Dual meet season again resumes on the other side of the holiday break, with Bryant swimming five teams in the span of two weeks. The Bulldogs will hit the road against UMass, Boston University and Rider on January 12, 16 and 19, respectively, before rounding out the regular season at home.
The final two meets of the season come in the span of 18 hours of each other, with a Friday night swim against Cornell on January 25 and then a Saturday matinee on January 26 against Marist.
While the men’s season will be done on the 26th, the women have a Wednesday night battle with in-state foe Rhode Island scheduled for January 30 to completely close out the regular season.
After two weeks, the Bulldogs will be swimming in their respective conference championships during the same week. The Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Championships will be held from February 13-16 in Buffalo, N.Y., while the Northeast Conference Championships will be held during the same time period in East Meadow, N.Y.
The Bulldog men finished third with a program-record performance at MAACs, finishing with 536.5 points, while the women will be looking to repeat at NECs and become the fifth different school to achieve the feat.