The Florida State swimming and diving teams released its 2015-16 season schedule on Wednesday.
“I like the way our schedule stacks up this year,” FSU head coach Frank Bradley said. “It’s very competitive and I think each meet will give us what we need in order to gear us towards the NCAA Championships.”
The Seminoles will start the season with a prelim/final format competition at the All-Florida Invite in Gainesville, Fla. from Sept. 18-20.
“This is always a good start to the season,” Bradley said. “It’s a great indicator of what we have both in and out of the pool. It’s truly the first test and a great introduction to the season.”
Following the invite, FSU will welcome Minnesota for a dual meet on Oct. 3 at 10 a.m. It will be the first visit to Tallahassee for the Golden Gophers in program history. The Seminoles will also host Florida Gulf Coast and Florida Southern in a two-day tri-meet on Nov.6-7.
“It’s great that we could add Minnesota,” Bradley said. “Both their men’s and women’s teams are solid and their women won the Big Ten title last season on top of taking a few events at NCAA’s. It should be a great meet.”
FSU will compete in three other tri-meets on the road this season, first facing Duke and Queens University on Oct. 23.
Following the season training trip, the Seminoles will compete against FIU and Indian River State College on Dec. 15 before closing out the season in Auburn, Ala. facing both the Tigers and Wisconsin.
“All of these meet will be great for us,” Bradley said. “These teams are talented and they’re competitive. I also think that having to go against Auburn and Wisconsin at the end of the year is great timing. It will be an excellent challenge and it will get our kids into that postseason frame of mind.”
FSU will also travel to a pair of duals against NC State on Oct. 24 at 11 a.m. and Florida onJan. 2 in Gainesville.
“NC State and Florida are also teams in the top 10,” Bradley said. “NC State is loaded after winning the ACC last season and Florida is always tough. Both should be tough tests.”
Florida State will send members of the women’s team to the SMU Classic on Oct. 16-17 and the entire team will contest in the Georgia Invite on Dec. 4-6.
“Both of those meets typically draw very fast teams,” Bradley said. “The goal is to thrive in the postseason and these meets are loaded with talent and they’ll help us prepare for that.”
The ACC Championships will run from Feb. 17-20 and Feb. 24-27 with women’s swimming and both men’s and women’s diving scheduled for the first week, followed by men’s swimming on week two. Both meets will be held at the Greensboro Aquatic Center.
Both women’s and men’s NCAA Championships will be held in Atlanta, Ga. at the Georgia Tech Aquatic Center, which was the site of the 1996 Olympic Games.
The women’s meet will run from March 17-19 while the men’s championship will take place from March 24-26.
“Having NCAA’s at Georgia Tech could be an advantage for us,” Bradley said. “It’s close. We’ve competed at that pool in the past a lot and ACC’s were there last year and it’s fast. But we’ve got to put in the work up front in order to get as many kids there as possible.”
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