The Texas Swimming Invitational starts Wednesday at Lee and Joe Jamail Swim Center, where the No. 4 Longhorn women and the No. 2 men will host 10
different schools.

The women are the highest-ranked team participating in the meet, with No. 8 USC not far behind. No. 13 Wisconsin, No. 22 UCLA and No. 24 Arizona will also compete, making for a star-studded meet.

The Longhorn men are coming off losses in both the season-opening meet at Indiana and against North Carolina State in Austin. Seniors Jack Conger and Clark Smith look to lead the team in a rebound effort after posting the top national times in their respective events earlier in the season. 

This meet has been on the swimmers’ minds since the beginning of the season. Senior Will Glass said that the meet against North Carolina State on Nov. 4 gave his team the preparation it needs to perform well at this week’s event.

“I would say that we could use [the NC State meet] to really gage where we’re at,” Glass said on Nov. 4. “But if we’re on our game and we’re swimming pretty well, that’s usually a good start from where we’re at.”

For the women, senior Madisyn Cox looks to continue her successful season this weekend. Cox and her teammates have dominated opponents this year, leading Texas to a 7–1 record on the season. Its only loss came against No. 1 Stanford, whose women’s team will participate this week.

Texas’ women haven’t had an easy road, either. Four of the Longhorns’ wins came against top-15 opponents. The Texas Invitational marks the first meet in which swimmers will try to qualify for NCAA’s by meeting an ‘A cut,’ which is a specific time needed for each swimmer to punch their ticket to the national meet. 

The 800-yard freestyle relay is the lone event on Wednesday and will take place at 6 p.m. Thursday will feature five events, starting at 10 a.m. Friday and Saturday are full steam ahead with six events each, starting at 10 a.m. and 9 a.m., respectively.