The Massachusetts swimming and diving teams will send a shortened lineup to the New England Open in Kingston, R.I., tomorrow. This will be the first time that the Maroon and White take part in this meet.

This weekend’s squad will consist of swimmers not attending Atlantic 10 Championships. The idea of participating in this meet was thought of while the teams were at the Rhode Island Invitational. It will give less experienced members of the team a chance to participate in a meet with a championship atmosphere.

Women’s coach Bob Newcomb knows his swimmers are disappointed they did not qualify for the conference championships, but knows how hard they have worked this season and wants them to be rewarded for their efforts.

“They’ve all put the work in and I want to see them be able to get some results out of it,” Newcomb said. “They’re going down there with the expectations that they are going to swim fast.”

The lesser-known athletes are getting their chance to move up on the depth chart in their events for next season. However, by no means will the competition be easy to defeat. The meet is an open competition, so different schools are going for different reasons.

The toughest competition may come from teams using this meet as a “last chance meet,” as Newcomb calls it. This means some teams use this meet in a final attempt to qualify for an event in their respective conferences.

Other, more competitive schools will go to determine their best swimmers and, thus, who will go to their conference meet.

The swimmers lanes will be decided by qualifying times they earned in previous meets.

UMass will send the maximum eight swimmers, all for individual events.

Men’s coach Russ Yarworth anticipates an intense atmosphere as many teams will see each other for the final time this season.

Yarworth wants the swimmers going to this meet to be upbeat and excited to participate in their last meet of the season. There is also an expectation that the swimmers will be excited for their teammates that are going to the conference championships.

The Minutemen are sending three swimmers to the New England Open.

“These three won’t [be a negative influence on their teammates],” Yarworth said. “They’re very positive kids, and also the kids going into A-10s will be as supportive of them as they will be for the A-10 squad.”

According to sophomore Brendan Jones, setting expectations of one’s self can be a negative thing, especially in a meet of this magnitude. Yet Jones still knows it is a major opportunity to prove himself not only to Yarworth but to his teammates.

Jones and his teammates will treat this meet as if it were the conference championship. Jones worked at lengthening his stroke for this meet to reduce the number of strokes per lap. He also prepared mentally, recognizing that pressure is the biggest problem for far too many athletes.

“I don’t want to put too much pressure on myself,” Jones said. “It really just comes down to letting your body do what it knows how to do.”

Mike Gillmeister can be reached at [email protected].