Notre Dame Swimming Opens Season of College Fundraisers for Winter Training Trips

SOUTH BEND, Ind., September 1. IN a scene that will be repeated in various fashions at many collegiate programs across the country, the University of Notre Dame men's swimming and diving team has announced it will be conducting a raffle to raise money to defray costs for its trip to Ireland this winter.

Among the top prizes available are travel packages to a 2005 Irish football game and a 2005 spring-semester Notre Dame basketball game. The prize drawing will be held on Dec. 4 at 6:30 p.m. (EST) at the Notre Dame Invitational swimming and diving meet. Tickets are $5 apiece and are available from now until then from assistant coach Matt Tallman.

The raffle's grand prize is two game tickets, two airline tickets, and two-night hotel accommodations (one room) for a 2005 Notre Dame football game of the winner's choice. Second prize is a pair of game tickets, two airline tickets, and one-night hotel accommodation (one room) to a 2005 spring-semester basketball game of the winner's choice.

The third-place winner will take home an original oil painting of Notre Dame's Main Building, affectionately dubbed the "Golden Dome," rendered by South Bend artist Jacqueline Welsh, the wife of long-time Irish men's swimming and diving head coach Tim Welsh.

Officially licensed team-issued Notre Dame Adidas gear is the raffle's fourth prize, while fifth prize is a football autographed by Irish head coach Tyrone Willingham and a basketball autographed by Notre Dame men's basketball mentor Mike Brey. The winner need not be present at the drawing to win.

The Irish men's swimming and diving trip to Ireland, which will include stops in Dublin and Limerick for both training and competition, is slated for Dec. 29, 2004-Jan. 9, 2005. In addition to various trips for meets at Western Ontario in Canada, the program has left the United States on a few other occasions for winter training and competition trips. After jaunts to Puerto Rico in the program's early days, the 1996-97 squad went to Brazil before the Irish traveled to Acapulco, Mexico, in 2002-03.

Questions should be directed to Tallman at (574) 631-3276 or via email at tallman.2@nd.edu.

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