With their first home meet of the season, No. 1 Texas will look to maintain its dominance against No. 5 Arizona and Wisconsin this weekend.

The three-day Annual Texas Swimming and Diving Hall of Fame Invitational will be an opportunity to see what they can improve on. All 21 events contested at the conference and NCAA championships
will be featured.

“Arizona comes to this meet every year, and they’re always real good,” said head coach Eddie Reese. “This is a meet they shave and taper for, trying to make their NCAA qualifying times, and they’re a real good team and they always make them.”

Texas is coming off of a pair of dual-meet victories over Indiana and Michigan and have recently been named No. 1 by the College Swimming Coaches Association of America.

Texas may be ranked at the top, but Reese is excited for the meet this weekend to see where the team needs to improve.

“That’s why they’re here, I’ll find what we need to do to get better,” Reese said. “We’ve still got three-and-a-half months to go to get it right.”

Reese is happy with the freshmen’s performances so far, but he is interested to see how they perform at the meet.

“They’ve been freshmen and all that goes with that,” Reese said. “We are really glad this meet has come up, because this is where we get to find out what they’ve been doing and how it is going to work out for them because I have rested them more than most.”

Although the team won the National Championship last season and has returned with 11 all-Americans, Reese has continued pushing them.

“I’ve got a real good group,” Reese said. “I have worked them harder than our team worked last year, and they have worked themselves harder. They have been doing a great job.”

Although the team has countless big names, Reese said there will be some unexpected stars on the team.
“We’ve got about six or seven guys that are going to be a pleasant surprise here,” Reese said. “Some you expect so much from, and they’re going to be the older guys. They’re all going to do real well.”

With the Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center being one of the premier facilities in the countries, other teams look forward to coming to Austin to swim. But for the Longhorns, it’s just another day at the office.

“We swim in it everyday,” Reese said. “It’s like if you grow up in the Taj Mahal, it becomes home; nothing special.”