The Cougars dive back into action when they host No. 3 Texas in the Sprint for the Cure at 6:30 p.m. today at the Campus Recreation and Wellness Center Natatorium. | Daily Cougar file photo
The Cougars enter their final meet of the regular season hoping their hard training has prepared them for the upcoming Conference USA Championships.
UH will swim against No. 3 Texas in the second annual Sprint for the Cure at 6:30 p.m. today at the Campus Recreation and Wellness Center Natatorium. This meet not only pits UH against one of the nation’s best squads, but also helps raise awareness for breast cancer research.
After the meet, the Cougars will have two weeks off before hosting the C-USA Championships, Feb. 24-27.
Head coach Mark Taylor said his team’s success is often magnified by the conference meet.
“The most important thing is our conference championships,” Taylor said. “How we are judged as a team isn’t on our win-loss record from the (regular-season) dual meets. It’s on our conference championships and the results in the NCAA’s.”
The Cougars have prepared themselves for the conference championships by competing against several top-10 teams, including Texas and Texas A&M. Taylor said racing against strong competition helps speed development in some areas, while properly training his team for the C-USA Championships.
“I want our athletes racing against the best athletes that they can,” Taylor said. “It helps them get ready; it helps them know what they have to do if they’re going to succeed. If they only lost a race by a half (of) a second or a whole second, we’ve got to help find a way to get them faster so that the next time they meet, it’s all on.”
Last Friday, the Cougars raced against No. 6 Texas A&M and lost 177-110. Taylor said the Aggies were as good as advertised — a phrase he hopes people will associate with his team in years.
“They have girls who are Olympic medalists in swimming, and they also have girls who are winning NCAA titles,” Taylor said. “That kind of quality brings out the best in our team. I think we got a little ways to go before we can match them head-to-head, but every year we get closer. Every year we get better, and that’s what the goal is — to be one of those types of teams, and to beat them.”
However, Taylor said the results don’t necessarily reflect how well the Cougars truly performed.
“I am so proud of the way the girls swam,” Taylor said. “We had lots of girls do best times. Our girls did great, and they’re setting themselves up for a really good conference championship.”
The Cougars will continue to set themselves up when they take on the nationally ranked Longhorns.
“Texas is one of the top two teams in the country,” Taylor said. “There are a lot of people who vote them second or third; I vote them first. I think that they’re one of the best coached teams, and they have good Olympians.
“We’re going to race against them as best as we can head-to-head. We’ll probably have a couple of people do different things, but most of them are going to be swimming in events they’re better at.”
