MIAMI (October 26, 2017) -- Back in competition this weekend, the FIU swimming and diving team will compete in the markedly different Dual-A-Pool-Ooza, a three-meet, round-robin, condensed event in a 24-hour period. FIU joins Tulane, Rice and Denver in New Orleans for the meet, hosted by Tulane. Rice hosted the event last season, with the Panthers holding the inaugural event in 2015.

 
"The coaches at Rice and WKU and I sat down and came up with this format to get multiple teams together and do something different," said FIU Head Coach Randy Horner.
 
"We are excited about this kind of meet, to help break up the monotony of competing in duals all of the time."
 
The concept of Dual-A-Pool-Ooza pits all of the participating teams in a round-robin format, but not swimming or diving the same events in each meet. Each individual meet is a shortened program, with the events and order established ahead of time, with the opponents decided just a few days before by random draw.
 
By draw, the Panthers will take on Rice in a Friday afternoon dual, starting at 5 p.m. Tulane faces Denver in a second dual in the first session. The Panthers will face off against Tulane Saturday morning at 11 a.m., with a final meet against Denver, starting at 4 p.m. The first two teams will swim a single heat, with the other two teams taking the pool for a second heat of that event for their dual until the program is complete. Each meet will take a little less than two hours. 
 
The traditional dual meet includes 16 events, including a 1-meter and 3-meter diving program (including a platform diving program at a conference meet), but these three meets contain one diving program and 11 events (Friday) and one diving program and 10 events in both of the Saturday meets. Each swimmer can compete in three events, with a maximum of two individual events per swim. Each dual has a springboard event to start (3-meter Friday and the last meet Saturday, with 1-meter springboard to start the Saturday morning dual) and a Medley Relay at the start of the swimming portion and a Free Relay to finish each meet.
 
As the rankings bear out, this meet features four of the top-six Mid-Major swim programs in the country. Rice has the top ranking in the CollegeSwimming.com Mid-Major poll, with FIU sitting third. Tulane is ranked fifth, with Denver at sixth currently.
 
"We like not only the format, but this is a chance for these highly-rated teams to get to race one another in a condensed format," added Horner. "We have liked doing this for the past two years, and I think these teams will want to keep holding this as we take turns hosting it. We have not competed in the same program format twice so far this season and that will continue into our meet next weekend."
 
FIU hosts Illinois in a two-day meet next weekend at the Biscayne Bay Aquatic Center.

Following is the race format for the three meets...

MEET I (Oct. 27 at 5 p.m. EST) - FIU vs. Rice, Denver at Tulane
Program
3-Meter Springboard Diving
400 Medley Relay
1,000 Free
200 Back
50 Free
200 Breast
100 Fly
100 Free
50 Back
200 IM
500 Free
100 Free Relay

MEET II (Oct. 28 at 11 a.m.) - FIU at Tulane, Rice vs. Denver
1-Meter Springboard Diving
200 Medley Relay
500 Free
200 Fly
100 Free
200 Back
100 Breast
50 Fly
200 Free
400 IM
200 Free Relay

MEET III (Oct. 28 at 4 p.m.) - FIU vs. Denver, Rice at Tulane
3-Meter Springboard Diving
100 Medley Relay
1,000 Free
200 Breast
50 Free
200 Fly
100 Back
200 Free
50 Breast
100 IM
400 Free Relay
                                                                                                                                                                                    
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About FIU Athletics: FIU Athletics is home to more than 400 student-athletes in 18 different sports. Athletic events are played in eight different venues on FIU's campuses (Modesto A. Maidique and Biscayne Bay), including Lime Court at FIU Arena and Riccardo Silva Stadium.
 
About FIU: Florida International University is classified by Carnegie as a "R1: Doctoral Universities - Highest Research Activity" and recognized as a Carnegie Community Engaged university. It is a public research university with colleges and schools that offers bachelor's, master's and doctoral programs in fields such as business, engineering, computer science, international relations, architecture, law and medicine. As one of South Florida's anchor institutions, FIU contributes almost $9 billion each year to the local economy and is ranked second in Florida in Forbes Magazine's "America's Best Employers" list. FIU graduates are consistently among the highest paid college graduates in Florida and are among the leaders of public and private organizations throughout South Florida. FIU is Worlds Ahead in finding solutions to the most challenging problems of our time. FIU emphasizes research as a major component of its mission with multiple state-of-the-art research facilities including the Wall of Wind Research and Testing Facility, FIU's Medina Aquarius Program and the Advanced Materials Engineering Research Institute.  FIU has awarded more than 220,000 degrees and enrolls more than 54,000 students in two campuses and centers including FIU Downtown on Brickell, FIU@I-75, the Miami Beach Urban Studios, and Tianjin, China. FIU also supports artistic and cultural engagement through its three museums: Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum, the Wolfsonian-FIU, and the Jewish Museum of Florida-FIU. FIU is a member of Conference USA and more than 400 student-athletes participating in 18 sports. For more information about FIU, visit http://www.fiu.edu/.