The University of North Dakota has decided that it will be downsizing its athletics program – and swimming could be on the chopping block.
A committee has been formed to decide which sports to cut according to WDAZ, and swimming is one of the school’s 20 currently-sponsored sports that have not been protected by the university’s president and athletics directors.
The committee has discussed cutting as many as 4 teams.
The protected programs include men’s and women’s hockey, men and women’s basketball, football, volleyball, and men and women’s track & field and cross country.
Men’s and women’s swimming and diving, men’s and women’s tennis, men’s and women’s golf, women’s soccer, and women’s softball are the exposed program.
The decision behind the cuts is an attempt to focus the program’s financial resources on fewer teams, with the administration believing that would allow those teams to be more competitive.
McKenzie Jeske, a committee and varsity swim team member, disagreed with that thinking.
“Amazing athletes, and they’re willing to work their butt off, that’s what, wins championships. Not bringing in millions of dollars so they can have great facilities.”
5- time Olympic gold medalist and current Stanford freshman Katie Ledecky spoke up on Monday against the cuts on her official Facebook page. Her mom grew up in North Dakota before earning a swimming scholarship at the University of New Mexico.
North Dakota’s women’s team finished 6th at last year’s WAC Championships and the men’s team was 5th in 2016.
AB
I think someone needs to say how hard the coaches and swimmers are working to keep their team. They have support not only from Katie Ledecky but also from the ND LSC and Swim USA. They have asked high school and club swimmers and their parents from the community and the state to write letters about how UND swimming has impacted them throughout their lives. They have also seeked suppport from former UND swimmers, from elite level swimmers that one of the assistant coaches swam with in college, an even a yahoo sports writer that is a swim parents. I don’t think any other team will be able to show this much communitl spirit at the meeting tonight. If Kennedy… Read more »
I think someone needs to say something about how hard the coaches and the swimmers are working to keep their sport. They have gotten support from not olny Katie Ledecky but also swimmers in the community,former UND swimmers, even elite level swimmmers that swam with one of the assistant coaches in college. The ND LSC had showen their support along with Swim USA. They have asked to high school swimmers and club swimmers to write letters about what the team has meant to them to show to the committee. I don’t think any other teams will be able show that much community spirit. If Kennedy is smart he will relize that swimming is an important sport that does well at… Read more »
Isn’t the SWA at North Dakota a former Swimming Coach?
This team’s been on the downswing since making the switch to DI in 2008. They were one of the best DII teams for several years before that. Same sort of thing that is happening with Incarnate Word now, though they’re a few years earlier in the transition process. It’s easier to get recruits as a high-level DII team contending for national trophies every year than a low-level DI team in a relatively low-level conference.
Athletic Director is Brian Faison, [email protected] 701.777.2234
When reading his bio which cites men’s & women’s swimming and diving, cannot help but wonder how many swimmers are part of the Athletic Director’s Honor Roll?
In the classroom, student-athletes continued to excel. This past year, nearly 75% of UND’s student-athletes were named to the Athletic Director’s Honor Roll for the Fall and Spring semesters; more than 200 earned academic all-conference honors; three received CoSIDA Academic All-District honors; three student-athletes were named CoSIDA Academic All-Americans; three received NCAA Post-Graduate Scholarships; and, men’s and women’s cross country, women’s basketball, men’s and women’s swimming and diving, men’s tennis, and men’s and women’s track and field all were recognized nationally for their academic performance.
Gotta fight! Don’t quit! Raise money and find your leverage to win. It’s a chess match and you have to out smart what you are up against!
UND’s men’s and women’s swimming and diving is the only collegiate swimming and diving program the State offers. The loss of the college program would be a huge loss to the state’s age group swimmers looking to complete at the college level.
Coach Chris is a good coach and will land on his feet no matter what