This weekend, the Georgetown swimming and diving team travels to Bucknell for three days of competition at the Bucknell Invitational meet. Coming off Thanksgiving break, the team has shifted its focus to the upcoming meet, and Georgetown Head Coach Jack Leavitt says the team is ready for competition after weeks of training.

“They have something to look forward to right away,” Leavitt said. “We have a couple more days of work, but then we are going to get up and race quickly. Everyone is really excited about the opportunity.”

This is the first year that the Bucknell Invitational has been after Thanksgiving, as opposed to before the holiday. Despite the break from team training, Leavitt sees this as a huge benefit to the team. Leavitt asked his athletes to keep fresh and find the opportunities to get into a pool any way possible over the break.

“It’s not always the easiest wherever they go home or go to visit family,” Leavitt said. “We trust that they did the work they needed to when they were home. They showed up the first few days looking great, so we feel everyone did what they were supposed to do.”

The Bucknell Invitational marks the midpoint of the team’s season, and Leavitt views it as an opportunity to evaluate where the team stands prior to the Big East Championship in late February.

“We don’t want to treat it any differently than anything else,” Leavitt said of the invitational. “It’s sort of like a dress rehearsal for Big East. Even though no other conference teams are there, the way the meet is set up is very similar … If we want to try to win [the] Big East, we are going to try to win this meet.”

The Bucknell Invitational will be the first competitive meet for Georgetown in three weeks. Leavitt believes that the break between meets has allowed his athletes to focus more on training and getting mentally prepared for the upcoming race.

“All of the challenges will be our challenges. We are trying to minimize them by preparing every day and giving the athletes the confidence they need in order to compete at the levels they are capable of,” Leavitt said. “They should be able to go into the meet relaxed, have fun and race fast.”

“We’re looking forward to seeing who’s going to step up and show us that they really want to be a part of a championship team this season.”

The Bucknell Invitational also provides opportunities for the Hoyas’ top relay teams to gain more experience racing together and create chemistry.

“This meet is the first opportunity that we are able to put together our best relays over the course of three days. We haven’t had the opportunity to do that yet since each meet only offers one or two relays that we need to split our athletes up in. This meet, we have the chance to enter our top relays in everything,” Leavitt said.

Heading into the weekend, Leavitt encourages his team to keep a humble perspective.

“We really try to not let the highs get too high and the lows get too low day to day, staying focused and trying to compete at the highest level we can.”

The Bucknell Invitational meet begins this Friday, Dec. 2 in Lewisburg, Pa.