The University of Delaware men’s and women’s swimming teams will conclude the season as the Blue Hens will compete in the Colonial Athletic Association championships being held Feb. 22-25 at the Christiansburg (Virginia) Aquatics Center.\

"Our team is excited to be competing at the Christiansburg Aquatic Center, as it is a great venue for some fast swims," said UD head coach John Hayman. "We had a great second half of the season and all of this hard work should provide for some very exciting swims from our athletes."

The four-day event begins at noon, Wednesday, Feb. 22, at and continues through Saturday, Feb. 25.

The preliminaries for the second, third and fourth day begin each morning at 10 a.m. with all of the finals except for the opening day set to begin 6 p.m. each evening. Day one's finals will begin Wednesday at 4 p.m.

The CAA will provide plenty of live coverage, as the prelims and finals will be streamed online free via CAA.TV. Live results will also be available at the CAA website.

The women’s championships will include eight schools (UD, Towson, James Madison, William and Mary, Northeastern, the University of North Carolina Wilmington, the College of Charleston, and Drexel) competing for the team title in 18 individual events.

Six schools (UD, William and Mary, Towson, UNCW, Drexel and the College of Charleston) will be competing for the men’s team title in 18 individual events.

Both the UD men and the women placed fourth at the CAA championships a season ago.

Historically, the men produced their best CAA finish with third place showings in 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011, while the UD women have equaled their best showing back-to-back seasons, when they’ve finished fourth. The women’s teams also finished fourth in 2002 and 2003.

Former UD diving coach Brian Coonce was named CAA diving coach of the year as the Blue Hens took home the men’s and women’s three-meter titles last year.

“On the women’s side, we are looking forward to some great swims from Sarah Braatz (freestyle), Mina Feyrer (fly), Julia Capobianco (fly), Annie Nunes (breast/IM), Madeline Maher (breast/IM), Melissa Manuelli  (50 freestyle) and Jordan Sawyer (50 freestyle),” Hayman said.

“On the men’s side, we’re looking forward to seeing Cory Camp (500 freestyle/1,650 freestyle/IM), Alex Hillsley (IM/backstroke/freestyle), Patrick Savidge (medley, backstroke, freestyle), Asher Kiely (backstroke, free) and Kevin Basch (1,650 freestyle),” Hayman said.

At last years CAA championships, Camp took home second in the 500 freestyle, third in the 1,650 freestyle and third in the 200 freestyle.

Other top performances included Hillsley finishing fourth in 200 IM, Nicholas Badsky finishing third in the 100 free and Maher finishing third in the 400 IM and fifth in the 200 breast.

The defending men’s and women’s team champions are from William and Mary. A year ago the Tribe women snapped Towson’s three-year run, and the Tribe men took home the CAA crown for the second consecutive season.