Kearney, Neb. – Nebraska-Kearney Athletic Director Dr. Paul Plinske announced today that longtime head women’s swimming coach Teresa Osmanski is resigning to take a teaching position in Elm Creek.
The Colorado native’s last day at UNK will be on Thursday, June 30th. She has led the “Aqualopers” for the past two decades and was just the second head women’s swimming coach in school history, following UNK Athletic Hall of Famer Joan Bailey.
“When Teresa shared with me her new opportunity, I knew that we were losing a great person. We will definitely miss her. We appreciate the contribution Teresa made during her 20 years as head women’s swimming coach,” said Plinske. “Her teams competed admirably and they represented us well in the pool, the classroom and in our community.”
Since Osmanski’s arrival, the school record books have been rewritten with the majority of the top 10 times in each event having been recorded during her tenure.
This past winter, three new individual school records were set as well as one relay mark. UNK also won the Mustang Invitational in Sioux City, Ia., won three duals and placed eighth at the RMAC (Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference) Championships in Colorado. Out of the pool, the Aqualopers maintained well over a 3.00 cumulative team grade point average.
UNK currently is an associate member of the RMAC in swimming and diving. Since becoming a Division II member in 1990, the Loper swimming and diving team has also been an independent and a member of the NSIC (Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference).
The only other current MIAA (Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association) member to sponsor women’s swimming and diving is Lindenwood. The Lions are also an associate member of the RMAC.
“As a department, we will press on to find a replacement that can help us further develop our women’s swimming and diving program. In the spirit of Title IX and with the goal to provide a great experience for our female student-athletes, we are committed to growing this program, enhancing its number of participants and making it a more viable contender in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference.”
UNK is slated to have 15 participants for the upcoming 2016-17 season, nine being true freshmen and six hailing from Nebraska. This will be the first season in Kearney High’s new pool after decades of competing in the on-campus Cushing Coliseum pool.
“We recently invested in the Kearney High School pool so that our team could participate in a state-of-the-art venue. We will search for Teresa’s replacement in the same manner that we did with other sport programs. I am confident about the potential we have to draw viable candidates to this position who will help us advance female opportunities on our campus,” said Plinske.
UNK began sponsoring women’s swimming and diving in the early 1960’s. As an NAIA (National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics) member, the Aqualopers had multiple top 20 finishes at the national meet.
Swimming news courtesy of UNK Swimming & Diving.
