Division II Weekly Preview: Wingate, Grand Valley, Northern Michigan In Action In December Invites

With Thanksgiving behind us, the majority of Division II will have their mid-season rest meets this weekend as a couple of the top ten teams will be facing stout competition across the country in the first weekend of December. Only (#7/3) Nova Southeastern will not be in an invite this weekend as they will be hosting in-state (#18/16) Tampa on Saturday in Fort Lauderdale.

Queens and Drury will not be in action this weekend, but that leaves the door open for the rest of the top ten teams to make moves this weekend and get some national exposure. (#5/17) Wingate will be heading to the SCAD Invitational to face their conference rival SCAD along with some of the members of Division III powerhouse Emory. The defending national champions in Division III will be splitting up their team as half will be at the SCAD Invite and the other half will be at the Miami Invite in Oxford, Ohio.

Division III Calvin will be hosting its own winter invitational with in-state Division II powerhouses (#6/15) Grand Valley and (#10/7) Northern Michigan in attendance for that one. The Wildcats from Northern Michigan have been one of the pleasant surprises in Division II swimming this year thanks to coaches Heidi Voigt and Matt Williams. They were 21st on the men’s side and 19th on the women’s side at NCAA’s last year and have climbed up to tenth and seventh respectively in the duel meet polls this season so far. They also only have three total seniors with one guy and two women seniors this season, so don’t expect them to go anywhere. Only time will tell though if they can keep up that pace as the season progresses into January and February. They will have their hands full with in-state rival Grand Valley at the Calvin Winter Invite this weekend.

Another pleasant surprise on the season has been (#12/8) Oklahoma Baptist as they put up some really stellar times at the Missouri Invite the week before Thanksgiving. They will be in action at the Texas Invite to see if they can continue their momentum they have had this season. They have had two of the best sprinters in Division II this season with David Lambert and Victoria Lambert leading the nation in the 50 free.

(#19/9) Carson Newman will stay in-state to swim at the Tennessee Invite where Division II swimming will have a chance to see senior Margaret Stansberry in action. She led Division II in the 200 free until the fall invites a couple weeks ago and she will definitely be looking to put together a stellar swim to get back to the top as we move in to December.

November 20 recap

November 6 recap

October 29 recap

October 22 recap

October 16 recap

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Swimming Pool Lovers

6 years ago

Aww

Gabriela Barragan

6 years ago

Julian Garcia $$$$$$

Blue Baie

6 years ago

Fancy that