Swim & Dive opens season hosting Chick-Fil-A Invitational Friday and Saturday

Live Meet Results

FRESNO, Calif. – 2017 NCAA national runner-up Cal and Washington State are among five teams joining host Fresno State for the season opening Chick-Fil-A Invitational sponsored by Chick-Fil-A Fashion Fair on Friday and Saturday. The annual meet will have three sessions over two days, including the first ever home night competition for the Bulldogs. Admission for all Fresno State swimming & diving meets is free of charge.

"It seems like it keeps getting earlier and earlier when we start the season but we're excited," Fresno State head coach Jeanne Fleck said. "We had our Red and Blue meet last weekend and had some really good indicators so I'm looking forward to this weekend. We have a lot of great teams coming and it's going to be a lot of swimming in three sessions; it's almost like a workout with how much we will be swimming."

The meet will begin at 11 a.m. on Friday followed by an evening session beginning at 6 p.m. The Invitational will conclude at 10 a.m. Saturday as a typical three-day meet will be completed in two days. Both diving events – 1-meter and 3-meter – will take place in the two sessions on Friday.

The 'Dogs will host a pair of Pac-12 teams in the Chick-Fil-A Invitational for the first time while also welcoming three fellow MW schools in San Diego State, San Jose State, and Air Force. Cal will take part in the meet for the second consecutive season while San Diego State and San Jose State are in the meet for the third straight year.

Cal junior Abbey Weitzeil won two Olympic medals in 2016, including gold in the 400 Medley Relay, and sophomore Robin Neumann competed for the Netherlands in the 2016 summer games. The Golden Bears are led by former Fresno State head coach Teri McKeever

"To get to swim against two Pac-12 teams and three other MW teams is really giving us the gamut of people that we can compete with and see where we're at," Fleck said. "We are going to see Olympians and all kinds of great swimmers so it should be really exciting."

The first ever evening swim and dive competition in the Fresno State Aquatics Center adds to the excitement and will give fans an opportunity to make their way over to campus following the work day.

"I saw what it did with water polo so we are excited to see how it is," Fleck said. "We can only really do it in October because it's too cold in February, so we figured that we would try it with this invitational and possibly move some other meets to the evening down the line. We have great lighting and it's something fun and new so it should be exciting."

Fleck's team returns four swimmers and two divers who earned All-MW honors last season. Junior Manuela Mendolicchio won the MW title in the 200 Breast last season and was also All-MW in the 100 Breast. Senior Ugne Mazutaityte, junior Kimberly Harbert, and sophomore Zofia Niemczak were also all-conference in swimming events while senior Kelli Funk was All-MW on platform diving and junior Irina Nikolaeva earned the honor on 1-meter.

Niemczak broke program records in the 100 and 200 Fly and the 500 Free as a freshman last season. Mazutaityte also holds three program records, in the 100 and 200 Back and 100 IM, and Mendolicchio broke the 100 and 200 Breast program records last year. As a team the 'Dogs also broke program records in the 200 and 400 Medley Relays and the 800 Free Relay at the MW Championship last year.

The Bulldogs have nine seniors this year but also welcome in a large freshman class with eight newcomers. Fleck and diving coach Taryn Patrick are both in their 11^th season with the program while assistant coach Anthony Randall enters his third year on the staff.

Chick-Fil-A Invitational Schedule (Aquatics Center)

Friday, October 5 – 11:00 AM
Session 1
All Session: 1-Meter Diving
200 Medley Relay
500 Freestyle
200 Individual Medley
50 Freestyle
200 Freestyle Relay

Friday, October 5 – 6:00 PM
Session 2
All Session: 3-Meter Diving
400 Individual Medley
100 Butterfly
200 Freestyle
100 Breaststroke
100 Backstroke
800 Freestyle Relay

Saturday, October 6 - 10:00 AM
Session 3
400 Medley Relay
1650 Freestyle
200 Backstroke
100 Freestyle
200 Breaststroke
200 Butterfly
400 Freestyle Relay

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Swim & Dive opens season hosting Chick-Fil-A Invitational Friday and Saturday

Chick-Fil-A Invitational Schedule (Aquatics Center)

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Players Mentioned

Kelli Funk

Kimberly Harbert

Ugne Mazutaityte

Manuela Mendolicchio

Zofia Niemczak

Irina Nikolaeva

Fresno State Athletics