Eagle Swimming and Diving Travels to CCSA Championships
2/16/2011 8:22:00 PM | Swimming and Diving
STATESBORO, Ga. - The Georgia Southern Swimming and Diving team (13-4) travels to Athens, Ga., to compete against 12 Coastal Collegiate Swimming Association (CCSA) teams at the CCSA Championships, February 17-19th. The three-day meet will be held at the Gabrielsen Natatorium with swimming trials starting at 10 a.m. and the finals beginning at 6 p.m. each day. The diving trials will be held Thursday and Saturday, with a scheduled start at 1:30 p.m.
"We have been looking pretty sharp in the pool and on the boards since our last meet," stated Head Coach Nathan Kellogg. "We have been focused in training and preparing to perform well at the CCSA Championships."
The Eagles will compete against Campbell, College of Charleston, Davidson, Florida A&M, Florida Gulf Coast, Gardner-Webb, Howard, Liberty, North Carolina A&T, North Florida, Radford and VMI.
Georgia Southern has faced 10 of the 12 teams already this season in dual competition, with win dual meet wins over seven. Coach Kellogg and staff expects every event to be competitive and for his squad to be in the hunt every stroke of the way.
"Competition will be good, as always, at the conference meet, and we expect to have a strong showing," said Kellogg. "The atmosphere will be tremendously exciting. We want our team to perform in the moment."
The Eagles return to Gabrielsen Natatorium where they finished third at the 2009 CCSA Championships. Their best finish at the conference championships. Seventeen University records were set at the meet, 12 still stand.
"The University of Georgia has an excellent facility and the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships have been held there multiple times," said Kellogg. "It's a fast pool and a lot of our team has grown up swimming age-group meets there. Three swimmers and a diver came from local club programs, so it's a homecoming for them."
The Eagles are coming off a three-week break from competition. In its last appearance in the pool, Georgia Southern defeated North Florida 169-116 in the regular-season finale at home, January 29th, at the Recreation Activity Center (RAC). GSU won 14 of the 16 events, including three events where the Eagles captured first-, second- and third-place finishes.
The Eagles look to carry that momentum into this weekend and improve on the fifth-place showing a year ago in the CCSA Championships in Knoxville, Tenn.
"We have specific team goals we would like to achieve, but very simply, we want our team to swim faster and dive better than we did last year," reiterated Kellogg. "If we do that, then our specific team goals will be achieved."
Ticket prices for the meet are set at three different levels. A single day pass is $10, while a two-day and three-day pass can be purchased for $18 and $25. Tickets can be purchased at the door the morning of Thursday, February 17, 2011, beginning at 8:00 a.m. Tickets will also be available for purchase at the door throughout the remainder of the Championship. Payment must be check or cash - the CCSA does not have the ability to run credit or debit cards.
All three days of the Championship will be video-streamed Live with play-by-play provided by Mark Bryant of the Big South Conference office. All three days of the Championship can be purchased for $7.95, while a single day can be viewed for $4.95. You can purchase the video streaming packages at BigSouthSports.com and choose "upcoming live events" from the multimedia menu.
In addition to the video stream, the CCSA will provide live Twitter updates on twitter.com/theCCSA.
Follow the Eagle Swimming and Diving team on GeorgiaSouthernEagles.com/swimming&diving or get short updates on facebook.com/GSAthletics or twitter.com/GSAthletics.
