The UCSB women’s swimming team will join the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation, which will be adding women’s swimming and diving for the upcoming 2010-11 academic year, it was announced Monday by the conference.
The sport will be become the 10th sponsored by the NCAA Division I conference specializing in Olympic sports. The women’s swim team will join the Gaucho men’s water polo and men’s volleyball teams, which are already competing in the MPSF.
The initial MPSF Women’s Swimming and Diving Championship Meet will be held Feb. 23-26, 2011 at Belmont Plaza in Long Beach. Joining the Gauchos in the conference are other former Big West Conference schools Cal Poly, Pacific and UC Davis along with Cal State Bakersfield, Loyola Marymount, Northern Colorado, University of San Diego and Seattle University.
“I think this is a very exciting opportunity for everyone joining,” said head coach Gregg Wilson. “This could prove to be a very competitive conference and this step is a real boost for all of the programs involved.”
The Gauchos left the Big West when the conference discontinued its championship after several member institutions dropped men’s and women’s swimming over the past two seasons. UCSB won 13 Big West women’s team titles since joining the conference in 1984, including four of the past five.
Hailing from the Big West, Pac-10, West Coast, Mountain West, WAC, Big-12 and Sun Bet 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.
The conference affiliation for the Gaucho men’s swimming team during the 2010-11 season will be finalized and announced in August.
