After a strong showing at the Nike Cup in Chapel Hill, N.C., the Kansas swimming and diving team is ready to start Big 12 Conference competition.
Texas A&M will open the Jayhawks’ conference schedule at noon Saturday. The Aggies are ranked No. 22, and according to Kansas coach Clark Campbell, deserve that national ranking as well as the designation as one of the best teams in the Big 12 and the country.
“I think it will be a very exciting meet,” he said. “I think we are going to be in it the whole way through.”
Campbell said now that the conference season was here, his team is ready and excited to open against a tough opponent.
“They have excellent athletes and are well-coached,” he said of the Aggies. “At the Nike Cup, we made a huge step and this will be our first test afterwards.”
Campbell said he knew it would be difficult to defeat the Aggies, but he knows that his team can compete with nationally ranked competition.
“This going to be like a heavyweight boxing match – it will be a back and forth meet, not just won or lost by who is winning the races, but in the trenches with who gets third and fourth place,” Campbell said. “It’s going to be a battle down to sixth places every heat. “
The team has a lot of confidence, in part because of the performance of Amy Gruber and Kristen Johnson at the Nike Cup.
Gruber qualified for the NCAA Championships in Auburn. Johnson made a B-cut, which means she will have to get faster to get an invitation, but she is close to reaching a qualifying mark. Campbell said she will be even faster at the Big 12 Championships
“Both Gruber and Kristen Johnson, they are the poster children for summer commitment,” he said. “They both went to the national championships this past summer in August, and had a great summer of training and racing. They used that to launch themselves into a great collegiate season.”
Campbell said it was everyone’s goal for this race and the rest of the season to continue improving from the Nike Cup times.
“If we can get to that level in the next six to eight weeks, that will get us ready for the Big 12 championships,” he said.
