Old Dominion University has discontinued its diving program, paring down to just men’s and women’s swimming, the school confirmed.
Old Dominion competes in the NCAA’s Division I, with the women’s team in Conference-USA and the men’s team in the CCSA. Last season, the team fielded divers, but only employed a volunteer diving coach, Robert Carlisle. This season, Carlisle no longer appeared on the roster. When we asked the school about his status, an Old Dominion representative confirmed that the school had discontinued its diving program after the 2019-2020 season.
“The 2019-20 season was the final season of competition for the Old Dominion diving program,” the athletic department spokesperson said. “All divers were able to transfer immediately, while divers that chose to stay at Old Dominion to complete their academic career will continue to receive their scholarships.”
Old Dominion won a C-USA diving event as recently as 2015, when Rachel Eckert swept the 1-meter and 3-meter springboards. Eckert was also an NCAA qualifier in 2015 while winning C-USA diver of the year. Last season, ODU had just one diving scorer at the C-USA meet: AJ Caruso, a senior who was 15th on 3-meter.
On the men’s side, Old Dominion has never had a CCSA champion in diving, but Cory Moreno placed in the top three in 2018 (3rd on 1-meter and 3-meter), 2017 (3rd on 3-meter), and 2016 (2nd on 1-meter and 3-meter).
