10 Great Swimming Pools In Action This College Conference Season

Courtesy of Counsilman-Hunsaker & Associates

This is one of the most exciting times of the year for swimming, especially if you are a college swimmer. If you’re fortunate enough to be attending a college conference swim meet this season, there is a good chance you will be at one of our pools. Here is a list of our top 10 pools in action this college conference season.

10. El Pomar Natatorium, Colorado Mesa University, Grand Junction, Colorado

Home to the 2015 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Championships. The El Pomar Natatorium features a 50-meter competition swimming pool and diving well with 1 and 3-meter springboards. The 860,000 gallon pool is equipped with the latest Colorado Timing System equipment featuring a 21-foot by 10-foot full color video board and sound system.

Colorado Mesa (Photo courtesy of Fred Coester Photography.)

9. West Herr Natatorium, Erie County Community College, Buffalo, New York

Hosting the 2015 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Championships. The natatorium includes an indoor 50-meter by 25-yard pool and a 45-foot by 25-yard warm up pool. If you are from the northeast, there is a good chance that you have swum at this facility. If you are lucky enough to have swum a prelims/finals meet here, you know how loud the “L” spectator seating gets with spectator seating directly behind the starting blocks.

Erie Community College (Photo Courtesy of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference.)

8. Aqua Arena at the Lakeview RecPlex, Pleasant Praire, WI

Home to the 2015 College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin Championships. The Aqua Arena, located inside Prairie Springs Park, provides great views of the Lake Andrea to both spectators and athletes. The 50-meter competition pool, includes seating for approximately 600 spectators. For lower operating costs, water in the pool and air in the natatorium are heated and cooled through geothermal technology, utilizing the adjacent lake.

7. Grinnell College, Grinnell, Iowa

Home to the 2015 Midwest Conference Championships. The state-of-the-art natatorium features a competition pool with eight 50-meter lanes, two bulkheads, 1 and 3-meter diving, and room for 600 spectator seats.

6. Al and Barrie Zesiger Sports and Fitness Center, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA

Home to the 2015 Northeast Conference Championships. The Al and Barrie Zesiger Sports and Fitness Center is a three-story natatorium that features a 50-meter pool with eight lap lanes. The diving at this facility is unique as it has only a 5-meter platform to go along with the collegiate standard 1 and 3-meter springboard diving. The Zesiger Sports and Fitness Center received Athletic Business magazine’s ‘Facility of Merit’ award for outstanding design in 2003, so it’s an old one but it is still one of our favorites.

5. The Gabrielsen Natatorium, University of Georgia, Ft. Athens, Georgia

Home to the 2015 Coastal Collegiate Swimming Association Championships. The Gabrielsen Natatorium includes a 50-meter competition pool with a full diving well and seating for 2,000 spectators. The aquatics venue has hosted numerous national and international competitions, as well as serving as a training site for some of the best aquatic athletes in the world. The facility was the official training site for guest Olympic swim teams of the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games. The natatorium was appropriately named after their infamous head coach, B.W. Gabrielsen, who helped mold the swim program to what it is today.

University of Georgia Pool (Photo courtesy of the University of Georgia Athletic Association.)

4. Trumbull Aquatics Center, Denison University, Granville, Ohio Athens,

Home to the 2015 North Coast Athletic Conference Championships. When this facility was built in 2009, the 50 meter pool was four times larger than Denison’s previous pool. The Trumbull Aquatics Center includes a competition pool with nine 50-meter lap lanes, a moveable floor, and a moveable bulkhead. The aquatics center has a unique spectator seating set-up for more than 1,000. The spectator seating wraps three sides of the competitive course, enhancing the competitive atmosphere within this unique natatorium.

3. Athletics and Events Center, Ithaca College, Ithaca, New York 

Hosting the 2015 Big East Conference Championships. The Athletics and Events Center includes a nine lane, 50-meter pool with twenty-one 25-yard cross course lanes. A movable floor system is included to enable shallow water swimming as well as deep water for the Bombers swimming and water polo teams.

Ithaca College is passionate about their other water sports, so much so, that the natatorium features rowing stations along the 50 M pool to provide the Bomber crew team a place to train inside, especially during the harsh winter months in upstate New York.

Ithaca Pool (Photo courtesy of Sam Fentress Photography.)

2. McCorkle Aquatic Pavilion, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio

Home to the 2015 Big Ten Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships. The Bill and Mae McCorkle Aquatic Pavilion houses seven bodies of water. The Pavilion’s main attraction is the Mike Peppe Natatorium, which includes one of the only truly Olympic pools in the United States, a full 50-meter by 25-meter pool. The natatorium has a spectator seating capacity of 1,400. The brickwork in this natatorium makes it a great place to cheer on your favorite college team. The Aquatic Pavilion includes three other pools with features like a moveable floor, an aquatic playground, a water vortex, underwater benches, and bubble couches to offer a wide range of programs to the general student body.

1. Georgia Tech Aquatics Center, Georgia Tech, Atlanta, Georgia 

Home to the 2015 ACC Championships. Originally designed as an outdoor freestanding pool for the 1996 Summer Olympic Games, in 2001 it was converted into an indoor award-winning natatorium. Since the Atlanta Games the Georgia Tech Aquatics Center has hosted the ACC Champs, NCAA Zone Diving Champs, USA Swimming National Championships and the 2011 Mutual of Omaha Duel in the Pool.

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