July 21, 2010

The Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) has announced the addition of women's swimming and diving beginning in the upcoming 2010-11 academic year, marking the 10th sport for the NCAA Division I Conference specializing in Olympic sports. The initial MPSF Women's Swimming and Diving Championship Meet will be held February 23-26, 2011, at Belmont Plaza in Long Beach, Calif. Cal Poly, Cal State Bakersfield, Loyola Marymount, Northern Colorado, Pacific, University of San Diego, Seattle University, UC Davis and UC Santa Barbara are the nine teams that will vie for the MPSF Title.

Cal Poly, Pacific, UC Davis, and UC Santa Barbara previously competed in the Big West Conference, before it discontinued its championship after several member institutions dropped men's and women's swimming. The Aggies claimed their first title by outlasting the four-time defending and 13-time overall champion Gauchos in a four-day championship point total of 864-852, also breaking a pair of Big West records at last year's event. In the team finals, UCD swam the 800-yard freestyle relay in a conference and meet record 7:17.96. Individually, then senior 100-yard backstroke champion Ashley Chandler broke the conference championship meet record as well as the all-time school record in 54.03. Additionally, 2010 Big West Swimmer of the Year Anne Marie May of UCSB competed at the NCAA Championships in the 50 and 100 Freestyle events. For the third place Mustangs, freshman Angie Haven captured Big West Titles by shattering the school record in the 200 individual medley (2:00.71) before following up with a meet-winning mark and surpassing the NCAA qualifying B-Cut in the 200 breaststroke (2:14.26). Pacific, who placed fourth last year, was the dominant force in the Big West from 2002-04 in winning three straight championships.

Loyola Marymount and Seattle make the transition from the Pacific Coast Swimming Conference. The Lions destroyed the program's 400 freestyle relay team mark (3:23.20) at the 2010 PCSC Championships, also a conference record and NCAA national time standard. Anne Scott, part of that freestyle team, was named PCSC Swimmer of the Year after also winning the 50, 100, and 200 freestyle titles with conference records and NCAA qualifying times. Freshman Camille Hoppe broke the all-time LMU records in the 100 and 200 breaststroke in 1:04.25 and 2:19.55, respectively. Meanwhile, Redhawks head coach Craig Mallery earned the PCSC Coach of the Year award after his women's team claimed three conference titles and set 12 program records, including all-time bests 987.5 team points and a third place team finish.

CS Bakersfield and Northern Colorado formerly competed in Conference-USA, while the University of San Diego has been a member of the Western Athletic Conference since the 2004-05 season, following its stint with the PCSC. Prior to elevating to Division I status, Roadrunner head coach Pat Skehan won 13 NCAA Division II national titles at the helm since the program's inception in 1989. Meanwhile, Torero head coach Mike Keeler led his team to the 2003 NCAA Championships and back-to-back PCSC Conference titles in 2000 and 2001. The UNC Bears were highlighted a year ago by junior Tori Gutt, who broke her own school record in the 200 Breaststroke (2:19.90).

Women's Swimming and Diving joins men's soccer, men's and women's water polo, men's and women's indoor track, men's and women's gymnastics, men's volleyball, and women's lacrosse as MPSF sponsored sports. Hailing from the Pac-10, Big West, West Coast, Mountain West, WAC, Big-12, and Sun Belt Conferences, a total of 37 institutions and 82 teams now compete in the MPSF. The conference owns a combined 61 NCAA Division I national team championships dating back to its initial season in 1992-93.