The Big West announced today that the 2024-25 Big West Women’s and Men’s Swimming and Diving Championships will be held at the Campus Recreation & Wellness Center Natatorium at the University of Houston. The four-day event will be contested from Feb. 12-15, 2025.
The event comes in the revival season of Big West swimming and diving with the first championship event since 2010. Five men’s teams and six women’s teams are set to splash down at Houston’s Natatorium with Cal Poly (men & women), Cal State Bakersfield (men & women), Hawai’i (men & women), UC Davis (women), UC San Diego (men & women) and UC Santa Barbara (men & women) set to compete for the titles.
“I am thrilled The Big West is able to bring swimming and diving back into the conference and host the 2025 Big West Championships at the University of Houston,” Big West Commissioner Dan Butterly remarked. “I am even more excited, however, that we will provide our student-athletes the opportunity to compete at a top, indoor, sea-level location where both our swimmers and divers can compete in the same venue at a single championship site, providing a better opportunity for our student-athletes to compete for coveted NCAA Championship opportunities.”
Hawai’i swept the men’s and women’s swimming and diving championships with UC Santa Barbara as runners-up a year ago in competition in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF), where all six Big West member-institutions previously competed. Big West student-athletes and coaches claimed nine of the 10 MPSF individual awards in 2024.
The 1,000-seat CRWC Natatorium, which underwent facility renovations in the summer of 2015, holds 1.3 million gallons of water. Measured at 70 meters by 25 yards, the pool ranks among the longest in the state of Texas. In addition to the pool and two 1-meter and two 3-meter springboards, the facility features five platform diving boards at 1-, 3-, 5-, 7.5, and 10-meter heights.
Since opening in the spring of 2003, the facility has been host to several prestigious conference and national events including three iterations of the NCAA Zone D Diving meet and the 2007 NCAA Division III Championships. The Big West joins the Mountain West and WAC in hosting a championship event in the venue.