Courtesy: Missouri State Athletics
SPRINGFIELD – Missouri State swimming and diving head coach Dave Collins has announced the full schedule for the 2023-24 season.
“This year’s meet schedule is filled with challenging competition,” Collins said. “We have a nice blend of meets at home and some great opportunities to travel.”
Like last year, Missouri State will open the season on the first Friday of October when the Bears travel to Lindenwood to take on the Lions on Oct. 6 at noon. Missouri State hosted Lindenwood to open last season with the Bears winning both the men’s and women’s meets.
The Bears will hold their home opener the following weekend with a two-day meet against Southern Illinois on Oct. 13 at 4 p.m. and Oct. 14 at noon. Missouri State will be off for a few weeks leading into November.
“In my opinion, we have made the mistake in the past of racing every weekend in October and I feel that was detrimental to our training,” Collins said. “It is my hope that this year’s schedule will have our athletes excited and prepared every time they compete while making sure we peak in February and March.”
The Bears will return to Hammons Student Center Pool with a meet against Arkansas on Nov. 4 starting at 11 a.m. November competition will conclude with another visit to the Purdue Invitational from Nov. 16 to Nov. 18. On top of last year’s men’s meet winner Purdue, notable schools are slated to participate, such as Louisville and Northwestern who finished first and second respectively in the women’s meet last year. In last season’s meet, the MSU women finished fifth and the men placed sixth.
Missouri State will host one meet in December as the Bears welcome the University of Missouri Tigers on Dec. 2. The Bears traveled to Columbia to face Missouri at the same time last season. The Tigers finished 16th in last year’s NCAA Men’s Championship.
“When building our meet schedule this year we really wanted to focus on quality competition dates without overdoing things, especially early in the fall,” Collins said.
The intensity will ramp up at the turn of the calendar year with four competitions starting with home-and-home meets against crosstown rival Drury University. Missouri State will celebrate senior day with the first meet on Jan. 19 at 5 p.m. Drury will host the second meet the following day on Jan. 20 at noon.
The Drury Panthers are coming off three consecutive second-place finishes in the NCAA Division II Men’s National Championship. The Drury women’s team finished third in last year’s DII National Championship.
The Bears continue their ramp-up to the conference championship on the road to Chicago where they will face Missouri Valley foes UIC and Evansville on Jan. 26 at 5 p.m. Missouri State will compete at the FMC Natatorium in Westmont, Illinois the following day against UIC, Evansville, IUPUI, Milikin and North Central on Jan. 27 starting at 10:30 a.m.
The conference season will conclude with the women competing in the MVC Championships held in Evansville, Indiana, Feb. 21-24 and the men competing in the MAC Championships in Carbondale, Illinois, March 6-9.
Qualifying athletes may compete in the NCAA Zone Diving Championships hosted by the University of Houston from March 9-13. The quest for a national title starts with the Women’s NCAA Championships hosted by the University of Georgia, March 20-23. The Men’s NCAA Championships will be soon after in Indianapolis, March 27-30.
Collins, entering his 13th season as head coach, will look to lead the women’s program to an eighth straight MVC title and bring a championship to the men’s squad for the first time since 2020 after finishing second last season.