THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2013
PAGE 9B
SWIMMING AND DIVING
Jayhawks to compete at Kansas Classic this weekend
MIRANDA DAVIS
mdavis@kansan.com
mdavis@kansan.com
The Jayhawks will head to Topeka this weekend where they will host the Kansas Classic. The team, now 2-3, will compete against five other schools in the championship-style meet.
The meet is slated for the entire weekend and will start Friday, Nov. 22 at 10 a.m. and will run through Sunday, Nov. 24. Schools competing against the Jayhawks include the US Air Force Academy, Iowa State, Nebraska-Lincoln, Nebraska-Omaha and Northern Iowa.
Kansas has already competed against US Air Force and Nebraska-Omaha this season. The Jayhawks lost their season opener against the Air Force Academy and defeated Nebraska-Omaha on Nov. 2 in Lawrence.
coach Clark Campbell expects a lot of competition from the other teams for the top spot this weekend.
"There's a total of six teams in this meet, and I think four of those teams will be competing for the top spot: Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa State and Air Force," Campbell said.
Kansas swimming and diving
The meet will be held at the Capitol Federal Natorium in Topeka, but is considered a home meet for the Jayhawks. It will be set up as an NCAA Championship meet and the events will be circle-seeded for the preliminaries, according to KUAthletics.com.
Preliminary events will take place on Friday and Saturday and the finals will be held on Sunday. Sunday's finals will also be televised on Time Warner Sports Network starting at 3 p.m.
after a November 9 loss to Illinois.
The Jayhaws have had two weeks off to prepare for this meet,
after a November 9 loss to Illinois.
"We got in a really good week of training after Illinois," Campbell said. "We really went after it."
After that training week the team is resting up for the three-day meet.
"It's a different meet, it's a championship style meet, not a dual meet so it happens over three days instead of one," Campbell said. "We are letting the girls rest up a bit for that. Hopefully they are fresh and ready to go on Friday."
While the weekend will be filled with tough competition for the Jayhawks, Campbell expects some of the strongest times of the fall leg of the season.
EMILY WITTLER/KANSAN
"We want to have the best meet thus far in the fall," Campbell said. "We want to go the fastest we have thus far in the collegiate season."
Alison Lusk, a senior on the Kansas swimming and diving team, swims the 200-yard breastroke at a Feb. 2, 2012, meet against Arkansas.
The Jayhawks will take another two weeks off after this weekend and travel to Knoxville, Tenn. to
compete at USA winter nationals on Dec. 5-7. This will be the first chance for the Jayhawks to individually qualify for NCAA Nationals in February. The Jayhawks next home meet is against William
Jewell on Dec. 7 at 2 p.m. in Lawrence.
Edited by Ashleigh Tidwell
CROSS COUNTRY
GEORGE MULLINIX/KANSAN
Senior Josh Munsch, center, cools down after the Rim Rock Classic on Oct. 5 in Lawrence.
First Jayhawk since 2010 qualifies for NCAA National Championships
DANIEL HARMSEN
dharmsen@kansan.com
Junior cross country runner Reid Buchanan earned an automatic bid to the NCAA National Championships with his 12th place finish at the NCAA Midwest Regional Championships last Friday at the Iowa State Cross Country Course. Buchanan will be the first Jayhawk to compete in the race since Don Wasinger did in 2010, finishing 233rd overall with a time of 33:02.7. The race will be held in Terre Haute, Ind., this Saturday.
After losing his shoe just 1K into the race at regionals, Buchanan pushed through the last 9K of the 10K race in 30:43.50, just 15
seconds behind first place finisher Chris O'Hare from Tulsa, at an average pace of 4:56 per mile. He actually ran the second half of the race faster than the first half—
"Catching back up with our guys...made me comfortable. They gave me enough confidence to get through."
REID BUCHANAN Junior cross country runner
Evan (Landes), Josh (Munsch), and James (Wilson) made me comfortable," Buchanan said. "They gave me enough confidence to get through. I know I couldn't have done as well without them."
shoeless and all.
"Catching back up with our guys:
But this Saturday, Buchanan will have to do it without his teammates, hopefully with both shoes.
Buchanan has past experience at the course for Saturday's race, when he raced with the team on Oct. 19 during the ISU Pre-National Invitational. Buchanan finished 37th overall, and first for the Jayhawks with a time of 24:05.84 for the 8K course.
Edited by Hannah Barling