LIVE RESULTS

BROOKLYN, N.Y.- The LIU Brooklyn women's swimming team is heading to the their first tournament event of the season at Rutgers University for the Frank Elm Invitational from November 17-19 to face some national caliber teams.

The meet, beginning on Friday, is a three-day championship format meet with preliminaries in the morning session each day and a final in the same event that evening. The field of schools includes: Rutgers, LIU Post, Liberty, Columbia, James Madison, Navy, Central Connecticut State, Wagner and Northeastern.

QUICK LAPS

• The Blackbirds have had two weeks off to rest before their last two events of the calendar year, this week at Rutgers and the ECAC Championships in two weeks time.

• LIU finished in ninth place in last year's Frank Elm event, with The Blackbirds scored 343 points, with Oleksandra Kashyrina finished tied for 16th with 64 total points.

• Head coach Matt Donovan has asserted that this year's team is built for this type of competition, and every healthy swimmer is scheduled to compete in their top events. His young squad is comprised of six returnees, all juniors and sophomores along with 10 freshmen. "This is the most important meet of the first half of the year and the most important non championship meet of the season," said Donovan. "This will be a real test for our program and let us know where we stand going into the second half of the year."

• Junior Briana Vega, the defending NEC champion in the 50 freestyle, holds the top time in the conference during the first half of this season and the top seed time in this weekend's race. The 50 free preliminaries and final are both scheduled for Friday.

• Jeanne Touchette-McGowan, one of the impressive freshman has a couple of third best times currently in the NEC and the number two time in the 200 individual medley (2:08.78) to date. She will compete in the 200 IM on Friday as well.

Next up after this weekend and the Thanksgiving weekend off, the Blackbirds will go to Long Island for the ECAC Championships at the Nassau County Aquatic Center in East Meadow for the three day competition. The NCAC will also be the site of this year's season ending Northeast Conference Championships from February 20-25.