Division II Queens College in Queens, New York will no longer host a men’s swimming and diving program. The decision was confirmed to SwimSwam by interim director of athletics Rob Twible.
The Queens men ended the 2017-18 season with only three active participants and one underclassman, according to Twible. They lost seven of eight dual meets during the season, tying with York College for their sole non-loss of the year.
Alicia Lampasso-Dillon coached the men’s team for the last two seasons, and she has served as the Queens women’s head coach since 1988.
No Queens male swimmer finished higher than 39th in an individual event at the 2018 Metropolitan Conference Championships, and since there were only three men at the meet, Queens had zero relays compete. Twible states that Queens competes, for the most part, in the East Coast Conference, and only one other school from that conference offers men’s swimming. Twible says that ending the men’s program “will allow for Queens College to allocate our resources to better align ourselves with our conference in respective varsity intercollegiate athletic programs.”
Below, read the full statement from Rob Twible:
The decision has been made by the Queens College Department of Athletics—after careful and exhaustive research and consideration—to officially discontinue the men’s swimming program at the conclusion of the spring semester. We will officially release a statement from our department about this move at that time.
The school competes in the East Coast Conference for most of, if not all of, our athletic offerings. With only one other school from our conference offering men’s swimming, ending the program at this time will allow for Queens College to allocate our resources to better align ourselves with our conference in respective varsity intercollegiate athletic programs.
In addition, the men’s swimming team concluded the 2017-18 season with only three active participants on the squad with one underclassman for the future. The numbers simply do not allow us to be compliant which creates a lack of successful competition between us and other programs.
QC Knights had an awesome program BITD – Early to mid 80’s we were a force to be reckoned with. If 1 point was left on the table, Shelly would find it, and exploit it to the other team’s demise. Genius coach – and the coach I aspired to be during my coaching days. QC**QC**QC**!!
When Shelly Rothman coached, it was highly regarded as a water polo team and swim team. I swam in the early 90s and it was a lot of fun. I believe before Shelly and after him there were some good coaches also. Very sad to hear. They better not come to me for money.
I was there when they cut the H2O Polo team. We had an awesome team that competed D1! We had players from all over Europe & the US. They still cut the team. As another poster said, perhaps if they were able to still give scholarships they could attract and keep swimmers. “Careful and exhaustive research?” My a$&!! Usually when things like this happen it’s “political.” Can’t always blame the coach. Sounds like they still haven’t gotten someone who can run, build, and maintain a solid overall athletic program.
Hard for a D2 to compete when they have taken away scholarship. Don’t always believe what an AD quotes. They used to have a nationally ranked water polo team as well.
Where is the other queens? (The better swim team)
Charlotte, NC
Not saying I like it, but if they team is super small and they are not paying enough to cover coaches salary and their expenses it makes since. However, most of the other programs that got cut it DOESNT make since FINANCIALLY