Nov. 19, 2008

LOS ANGELES, Calif. - LMU swimming will travel to Long Beach, Calif. starting on Thursday of this week to participate in the 2008 Nike Cup. The UC Irvine men's and women's swimming teams will host the three-day event at Belmont Plaza Olympic Pool. Prelims begin at 9:00 a.m. each day with the top-24 swimmers in each event returning for the finals starting at 6:00 p.m. to score points for their respective teams. A total of 22 women's teams and 15 men's teams will be competing at the three-day event.

The Nike Cup will feature 13 Division I women's teams and seven Division men's teams. Highlighting the men's competition is Brigham Young who finished second in the 2007 Nike Cup and Air Force who finished third. On the women's side, BYU is the top returning women's team after finishing second at the 2007 event. Pacific, who defeated LMU in dual-meet action earlier this season, took third last year on the women's side. LMU finished 10th overall in 2007.

The Division I women's field is UC Irvine, BYU, Air Force, Loyola Marymount, Nevada, New Mexico, Cal State Northridge, Pepperdine, Pacific, San Jose State, San Diego, Cal State Bakersfield and UNLV.

The Lions are coming off a dual-meet victory over Seattle University by a count of 125-78 on November 9. LMU won eight of the 11 races on the day en route to the victory. After competing at the Nike Invitational, LMU swimming will return home on December 19 in dual-meet action against New Mexico State at 11 a.m.