Arizona’s No. 2 men’s and No. 4 women’s swimming and diving teams close out their fall season today at the Texas Invitational in Austin.

The tournament field consists of the top competition in the nation. Stanford brings its No. 3 men’s and women’s teams, while ASU (No. 17 women), Wisconsin (No. 19 women), Southern Methodist (No. 12 women) and host Texas (No. 1 men, No. 16 women) will also compete.

But this tournament is critical to the Wildcats for reasons other than high degree of competition, said UA head coach Frank Busch.

“”This is the one tournament we focus on this semester,”” he said. “”We are trying to make our (NCAA time) standards here to qualify for the NCAA Championships (in May).””

The Wildcats aim to qualify almost the entire women’s squad and at least 15 men.

“”If we do that, (the tournament) will be a success,”” Busch said.

At last year’s event, the teams combined for 27 NCAA qualifying times, two individual wins and eight school records.

The UA men stand 3-0, 1-0 in the Pacific 10 Conference, while the women are 4-0, 2-0.

“”Where we are right now and what we’ve accomplished, everyone’s excited,”” Busch said. “”Pretty much the entire team has been to this tournament before. They know what’s coming, so there isn’t as much pressure as in other tournaments.

“”It’s about going with the flow and having fun. We have high expectations, though. There will be a lot of competition, and it will be a lot of fun.””