RENO, Nev. - The University of Nevada swimming and diving team (3-7) will travel to San Antonio, Texas to compete for its fourth Western Athletic Conference Championship title in five years, beginning Wednesday, Feb. 23 and run through Saturday, Feb. 26. The meet will be held at the Palo Alto Natatorium on the campus of Palo Alto College in San Antonio, Texas.
"This is a cohesive and exciting group," head coach Mike Richmond said. "We put in the work this year, and I'm excited to see how that pans out. I'm as confident now as I've ever been in 12 years of coaching at Nevada, so I feel good about where we are."
Nevada will look to season leaders Mengjiao Mi and Chavisa Thaveesupsoonthorn to guide the team to the WAC title. Mi, the 2009-10 WAC Freshman of the Year, leads the team with 11 event wins on the season. Mi has also managed top-three finishes against each of the Wolf Pack's ranked opponents including No. 1 Stanford and No. 5 Cal. Thaveesupsoonthorn has recorded a top-three finish in each of Nevada's dual meets this season, including seven first-place finishes.
The Wolf Pack divers will be led by freshman Grace Huang and junior Aniesa Debaji. Huang, a two-time Verizon WAC Diver of the Week, and Debaji have placed in the top three in each of Nevada's dual meets this season. Both divers also posted top-15 scores on the 1-meter, 3-meter and platform at the Wildcat Diving Invitational Nov. 19-21 where they faced competition from No. 1 Stanford, No. 6 Southern California, No. 7 Arizona, No. 16 Wisconsin and No. 23 San Diego State.
"We have great leadership and some exciting new additions this year," Richmond said. The girls understand that they are part of something bigger, and they want to stand up to the legacy. I really believe this is going to be a special team for us."
Wednesday's events will kick off with the 200-yard medley relay at 4:30 p.m. followed by the 800-yard freestyle relay. Thursday, Friday and Saturday's schedule of events will include preliminaries at 9 a.m. followed by finals at 4:30 p.m. Fans will be able to purchase an online streaming package in order to watch finals events live. Viewers who elect to purchase a streaming package will be able to watch Wednesday's relays for free. The remaining three nights can be viewed for a subscription of $5.95 per night, or a full championship package can be purchased for $9.95. Fans can also follow live meet results online at wacsports.com.
