NCAA Division II member Quincy University in Quincy, Illinois has cut its women’s swimming program, effective May 1st.
“The decision to make a cut among our athletic offerings is made only after extensive consideration and discussion,” said QU vice president for intercollegiate athletics Marty Bell. “With the current financial constraints of the institution, we felt that it was in the best interest of the athletic department and Quincy University as a whole to move forward in this manner.
“We will work on behalf of our student-athletes who are impacted with the necessary support they need to continue in their academic and athletic careers.”
In October, Quincy, a private four-year liberal arts and master’s institution, announced that the school’s financial picture was worse than originally expected, and that the university as a whole was facing a $5 million budget shortfall. The university president resigned in March, and while the school was boosted shortly thereafter by a $1.3 million donation from Dot Foods, that wasn’t enough to stave off deep cuts.
Quincy’s swimming program only competed at the varsity level for two years, and head coach Rachel Schlatter recently left the program to take over as the associate head coach at Michigan Lakeshore Aquatics.
Quincy says they only had 2 student-athletes scheduled to return next season, and said that they will release any student-athletes wishing to transfer, or honor their existing scholarships.
The team, with only 9 swimmers, finished 6th out of 10 teams at last year’s GLVC Championships behind champions Drury.
Should they choose to transfer, among the most coveted prospects will be freshman Ebony McCray, who last year swam 23.76 and 51.82 in the 50 and 100 free and 56.49 in the 100 fly last season.
DII Private Institution! The last program that should be dropped when a school is faced with financial difficult is the swimming program. If the school is not making money from the swimming program the main culprit in this is a lack of understanding on the administrations part, and lack of properly communicate to the hired coach the number one responsibility in a start up……and recruiting fast swimmers in not the initial objective.
It will be OK very few people care anyway
When there are only 2 swimmers still committed to your program and only a few incoming, it’s hard to justify continuing it. There are reasons they were down to 2 swimmers, which had nothing to do with school cost.
What reasons? Looked like most girls went best times…
Swimming fast is wonderful, but a big part of the experience is the journey that leads up to that meet.
Facepalm… Going fast ain’t easy
It’s not about things being easy.
“Extensive consideration and discussion” How about instead of cutting a swim program that doesn’t cost a ton with only 8.1 scholarships and get rid of a Division 2 football program with 36 scholarships that makes little to no money.
How many other programs how only been around for a few years before they were eliminated? Dayton Beach State College in the NJCAA were around a little longer but they were also only a 2 year institution.
Why only 9 swimmers, is the school so expensive that they could not get more students?