Led by Head Coach John Hayman, the UD women's team will try to improve upon back-to-back fifth place finishes, while the men's team is hoping to improve upon last year's eighth-place finishes.
The meet, which will be hosted by George Mason for the ninth straight year, will get under way on Wednesday with preliminaries beginning at noon and finals at 6 p.m. The following three days will start with trials at 10 a.m. and conclude with diving at 1 p.m. and finals at 6 p.m.
A complete schedule as well as live stats for the competitions can be found on the conference website [www.caasports.com].
The UD men's team will be led by senior Andrew Zinn, who holds the fastest time in the conference this season in the 50-freestyle after setting a school-record in a time of 20.44 against Towson University. He also has the third-best time in the 100-yard event at 45.97.
Teammate Grady Carter has the second best time in the 50-yard freestyle at 20.84. In other events, Garrett Arant and Matt Wehrman both rank in the top 10 in the 1,650-yard freestyle, while John Ohlhaver currently has the fifth best time in the 200-backstroke and the sixth best mark in the 100-yard backstroke.
The Blue Hen relay teams have also had strong seasons, with top five times in the conference in the 200- and 400-yard freestyle relay events as well as the 200-yard medley relay.
Diver Matt Abbruzzese has notched the fifth-best scores among conference performers in both the 1- and 3-meter dives.
For the UD women's team, freshman Cortney Barry notched the eighth best time in the CAA in the 1,650-yard freestyle at 17:15.37, and Kellie Pastore has the eighth best time in the 200-yard breaststroke.
Junior Maryann Walker, the reigning conference champion in the 100-backstroke, has the 14th best time in that event and the seventh best time in the 200-yard backstroke.
Fellow junior Shannon Burke has the 10th best scores among conference divers in both the 1- and 3-meter events.
Sarah Begley and Emily Smathers hope to repeat their top five finishes during last year's championship meet in the 100 butterfly and 100 backstroke, respectively.
Stephanie House, who teamed with Walker, Kendall Warren and Meredith Law to finish fourth in the 800-yard freestyle relay at last year's conference title competition, also hopes to do the same this year alongside Begley and Barry, who joined the two returners to post the 10th best time in the conference in that event during the regular season.
For more information on UD athletics, see [www.udel.edu/sportsinfo].
