NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships 2015 in Iowa City gallery

(Photos by Adam Wesley / The Gazette)

IOWA CITY — If you've noticed a wide array of college logos and colors in Iowa City lately, it's for good reason.

The NCAA Men's Swimming and Diving Championships got underway Thursday morning at the Campus Recreation and Wellness Center on the University of Iowa campus. The event, which wraps up Saturday, is expected to bring hundreds of people to the area from around the country. Local officials have spent weeks preparing for the event.

Banners have been hung on light poles throughout the downtown area and a larger banner, declaring Iowa City home to the butterfly stroke, is currently hanging from a downtown parking garage facing the Campus Recreation and Wellness Center. Iowa City is no stranger to hosting large championship events. In past years the city has hosted the NCAA wrestling championships as well as the 2012 Olympic wrestling trials, an event they're bidding to host again in 2016.