Photo Courtesy: UIW Athletics
The Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) has announced the additions of the University of the Incarnate Word Men’s and Women’s Swimming and Diving teams, beginning with the upcoming 2022-23 season. Located in San Antonio, Texas and primarily affiliated with the Southland Conference, UIW completed its first season in 2022 as a member of the MPSF in both fencing and artistic swimming. The Cardinals have been competing in women’s swimming and diving since 2002-03, and since 2007-08 on the men’s side. UIW has competed on the NCAA Division-I level in the Coastal Collegiate Swimming Association (CCSA) since 2013-14, where the men won their fifth conference title in 2022 (fourth in the last five years). In the most recent 2021-22 academic year, UIW won Southland Conference titles in five different sports.
“We were elated to have the outstanding fencing and artistic swimming UIW programs join our conference last year, and now we are equally thrilled to continue our partnership with the Cardinals on the swimming and diving side,” said second-year MPSF Executive Director Foti Mellis. “What’s more is these programs enter the MPSF at an extra exciting time as we transition our championship into a new state-of-the-art facility.” The MPSF’s addition of UIW comes just four days following the historical announcement of the conference relocating its championship to Utah Tech University in St. George, UT, where the 13th edition for the swim portion of the MPSF meet will be held in the three-year-old Human Performance Center (HPC), February 15-18, 2023. UIW Men’s and Women’s Swimming & Diving represent the 13th and 14th teams added across the entire MPSF since the arrival of Mellis just over one year ago on June 1, 2021.
The MPSF Championship is lined up for 18 teams--10 for women and eight for men across 10 universities from the Big West, West Coast, and Southland Conferences. Scheduled to join UIW on the men’s side are BYU, Cal Poly, CSU Bakersfield, Hawaii, Pacific, UC San Diego, and UC Santa Barbara. The same schools will compete on the women’s side, in addition to UC Davis and San Diego.
“I am very excited to have a home for our program and we get to join the MPSF along with our artistic swimming and fencing programs,” said UIW Head Coach Phillip Davis, who enters his 17th season at the helm of the Cardinals and was a four-time CCSA Coach of the Year. “I look forward to seeing many familiar faces from over my career and many new ones as well. I am certain that our athletes will be up for the very big challenge ahead of us, and we just want to do our part to represent the MPSF Conference.”
Further MPSF Swimming & Diving information, including the championship’s schedule of events and live coverage, will be forthcoming on the conference website
www.mpsports.org and on the sport’s twitter page @MPSFSwimDive. Learn more about UIW online at
www.uiw.edu and on its athletics’ website at
www.uiwcardinals.com.