Men's Swimming Gives UT a Challenge

[Water Pony]

Delighted with the Men's performance this past weekend against the Longhorns. A definite improvement over results the last couple of years.

Thanks, Eddie. Go Ponies!

:thumbupcool:

[Cheesesteak]

Will the men's swimming team be top 10 quality again in the next few years? How much young talent does the men's team have?

How much does Perkins Natitorium affect recruiting? The SMU women's team is fantastic and they use Perkins too.

Any news/rumors about a future varsity aquatics facility since the 2003 announcement about putting a recreation swimming only pool in the expanded Dedman LSC?

[Water Pony]

I have investigated this a great deal and there is not immediate plan for a new competitive pool.

Unfortunately, the new recreation pool is dedicated only for student use. At $3m, it would have been smarter to combine requirments, given the students a better facility and permitted Men's and Women's Swimming to have a pool for competion and recruiting. I love tradition but Perkins is a draw back

[Cheesesteak]

Is there a large state-of-the-art aquatic facility in the Metroplex that SMU could use/rent as its home pool for really important/large meets (DMN Classic)?

My question pertains to SMU's ability to host large, high-prestige meets that ideally require more lanes - preferably 50 meters long.

For example, most SMU swimming meets would be held in Perkins with one or two per year at the off-campus pool.

A basketball analogy (using seats for fans instead of lanes for swimmers) would be Villanova University. Most VU home games are on-campus at The Pavilion (seats 6500). Home games against UConn, etc. are frequently played at the Wachovia Center (seats 20,000) where attendance of 15,000 fans is a reasonable expectation when Villanova has a strong team.

Could a modern off-campus pool be an asset to the SMU swimming program until a new varsity aquatics facility is built on the Hilltop?