After two early season home victories and a recent triumph at Penn State, the Virginia men's and women's swim and dive teams take their unblemished win-loss records into the Auburn Invitational in Alabama this weekend, where they will face their stiffest competition this year to date.
The No. 10 men's team will face off against South Carolina and No. 4 Auburn. The No. 11 women will battle South Carolina, No. 10 California and No. 1 Auburn. The meet will take place all day tomorrow, Friday and Saturday.
"We've been approaching this meet as the platform for the second half of the season, which starts up next semester," junior Luke Wagner said. "We're using this meet to qualify as many people as possible for the NCAA meet so that we can just focus on winning at ACCs and not worry about times. Practices have been geared toward racing rather than endurance so that we are in top form this weekend."
Both the men and the women easily defeated South Carolina at home in the first meet of the season, but the highly ranked Tigers should prove to be a formidable foe for both squads.
"All of the teams are quite strong, but the greatest challenge will come from Auburn," Wagner said. "We are looking at this as an opportunity to demonstrate our abilities against the highest caliber teams and establish ourselves in the top 10."
The last time Virginia faced off against a ranked opponent away from home was on Nov. 8 when the team traveled to Penn State. Both the men and women defeated the nationally ranked Nittany Lions 132-106 and 127-114, respectively.
One of the top performers in that meet was freshman swimmer Francis Crippen, who dominated both the 1650-meter and 500-meter freestyle races, finishing first in both events. Throughout the season, Crippen has been the most successful and consistent swimmer for the Cavaliers.
"Fran contributes a great deal in scoring points at meets, working hard in practice and in helping the team reach its goals," senior swimmer Dan DeMarco said.
Despite his youth and inexperience, Crippen has outperformed the entire ACC in the 500-meter, 1000-meter and 1650-meter freestyle events. But Crippen has done more than just outswim the entire conference -- no swimmer in the ACC has come close to topping him this year.
Although the second-, third- and fourth- place swimmers' times in the 500-meter are all within two-tenths of a second from each other, Crippen's time is over 3.5 seconds faster than anyone else in the ACC.
He also holds a five-second advantage over the nearest competitor in the 1000m, and his time in the 1650m is over 22 seconds faster than the rest of the conference.
He has also managed to accomplish all of this while adjusting to University life for the first time.
"Swimming for Virginia has met my expectations," Crippen said. "Hard work, dedication and team chemistry have been very key. Juggling swimming, schoolwork and a social life is sometimes tough, but I feel I am doing a good job."
The strength of Auburn and Virginia's other opponents at the meet this weekend might be enough to force Crippen and his Virginia teammates to drop the ball. But Crippen has confidence that the Cavaliers will be able to end the first half of the season undefeated.
"Every team wants to get some fast times in this half of the year," he said. "We are definitely ready to race and show the NCAA that we are a force."
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