HONOLULU – The University of Hawai`i men's and women's swimming and diving teams each travel to Texas to take part in its conference championships this week. The WAC Championships for the women will be in San Antonio, Texas, while the men's Conference USA Championships will be in Houston, Texas.

 

The men's and women's conference championships each begin on Wednesday, Feb. 25. The women will be at the Palo Alto Natatorium in San Antonio, while the men will be at the CRWC Natatorium in Houston.

 

The men open on Wednesday with two diving preliminaries and two relay finals. The women also open on Wednesday with two relay finals.

 

Each conference championship concludes on Saturday, Feb. 28.

 

At last year's conference championships, the UH men's team finished second behind SMU. UH totaled 819 points at the Conference USA Championships, while SMU finished with 968.5 points. The women's team finished in third place with 574.5 points, while Nevada won the championship with 725.5 points and Northern Arizona finished second with 605 points.

 

Junior Emma Berry won three gold medals at the WAC Championships last season. Berry won the 200 free, 500 free and 1650 free. Along with Berry, senior Elliko Heimbach was part of the team that won the 800 freestyle relay, which also included Alyssa Manlow and Ricarda Schellenberg.

 

The men's team features several young swimmers who will be competing in their first Conference USA Championships, mixed in with several veteran swimmers from last year's second place team. Senior Miha Grzina, juniors Davis Kane and Mark Higley and sophomore Ilia Reyes return after finishing second in the 200 freestyle relay last year. Senior Greg Wilson finished in third in the 100 butterfly and 200 butterfly and senior Nicola Xella placed second in the 100 breaststroke last year.

 

Juniors Emma Friesen and Raquel Bartlow each enter the WAC Championships with good memories from last year. Friesen won the 1-meter WAC title and went on to win the 1-meter NCAA Championship. Bartlow finished second in the 3-meter and the platform at last year's championships.

 

The WAC, in conjunction with its website partner JumpTV Sports, has announced it will stream the finals of all four nights of the 2009 WAC Swimming & Diving Championships, Feb. 25-28. Viewers can sign up by visiting www.WAC.tv. Viewers that sign up will be able to watch Wednesday's two final events for free.  Full schedules begin Thursday with finals in several events the next three nights.  Each of those three nights can be viewed for a subscription of $5.95 or a full championship package can be purchased for $9.95.  Finals begin at 6:30 p.m. CT on all four nights.