NCAA D3 school Bluffton University in Bluffton, Ohio has quietly eliminated its men’s and women’s swimming and diving programs.
While the school has made no announcements, both programs have been removed from the list of athletic offerings. That reduces the schools athletics offerings to 16 programs: 7 men’s, 7 women’s, and 2 coed programs.
The university has not responded to multiple requests about the future of the program, but members of the team have confirmed the cut.
One told SwimSwam that “several factors were considered in this decision, including roster sustainability, recruiting trends, operational costs and facility considerations.”
“The swim and dive programs have been an important part of the Bluffton community, and I will forever be grateful for the opportunity to be a part of that team,” Jami Baker of the women’s program told SwimSwam. “I know the university is also deeply grateful for the dedication, leadership and commitment demonstrated by student-athletes, coaches, alumni and supporters over the last five years.”
Another member of the team, Riley Bruns, who was the school’s first male swimmer, said that their two coaches had to step away for personal reasons, because it wasn’t their full time job.
Bruns said that in the meeting where the team was informed that their coaches were stepping down, it was communicated that the plan was to continue the program, but that the final decision was up to the school’s board of directors.
Bruns said that athletes were not notified directly, but instead learned of the decision through a campus wide email. He says it felt like a “betrayal on our loyalty to the university.”
The school launched its swim teams for the 2021-2022 season, becoming the 7th in the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference to sponsor the sport. The team struggled to gain traction though.
Rosters for the 2025-2026 season list just four women and two men competing for the program. The roster had been bigger in prior years (including 8 women for the 2021-2022 season), but the squad dwindled in recent years.
The program was headed by Luke Kleman for the last three seasons. His wife Claire is the vice president for enrollment and communication at Bluffton and he works full-time as a neurological physical therapist. The program also listed a pair of assistant coaches last season.
The Bluffton women finished 6th out of 7 teams at the HCAC Championships, including senior Sydney Grisier pulling double duty as a springboard diver and a relay swimmer.
The school is facing shrinking enrollment, like many small private schools around the country, and had previously agreed to merge with Division II University of Findlay, which has a much larger, stronger, and more credentialed swimming and diving program. That was eventually called off in part because of the expense and complexity of maintaining separate athletics programs.
Bluffton counted 493 undergraduate students and 72 graduate students in the 2025-2026 academic year. Federal reporting data for the 2024-2025 academic year shows that the school had 372 student-athletes, which was about 65% of the undergraduate student body.
Fill your rosters!
Roster sustainability is often more complicated than simply saying “fill your rosters.” Across Division III athletics, enrollment trends, demographics, and competition from other schools all play a role. Similar challenges have affected programs nationwide.
How sad for the athletes and students at this university.
All, like, 3 of them. My masters team gets more people at the Sunday 6am practice than this “team” had in its entire history.
Open your eyes to the trend. This sucks
D3 trend is vastly different than the D1 trend. D3 teams get cut because they’re not filling rosters. No filled rosters = less students paying tuition. D1 is more about specific AD’s and how they want to balance the budget.
Did you see how many people the team had? They tried and it was so unsuccessful that they could barely field relays.