Quincy University in Quincy, Illinois has announced that they will re-add a women’s swimming & diving team for the fall of 2022, and this time, the men will come along too.
“The United States recently won an impressive 30 Olympic medals for swimming. However, despite the remarkable number of youth swimmers in this country, some universities have eliminated swimming programs in recent years,” said Brian McGee, Ph.D., Quincy University president. “We are proud to add women’s and men’s swimming as the thirteenth and fourteenth Olympic sports at QU and to provide new opportunities to these student-athletes.”
McGee’s statement doesn’t mention that Quincy University is one of the programs that has eliminated swimming & diving in recent years. The school added a women’s program in 2015, but after just one season eliminated that program. The latest release blames that on “several personnel changes and unanticipated challenges.”
In October of 2016, 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 or 2017, 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.
The NCAA Division II school, though, now says they’re ready for men’s and women’s teams.
The women’s team finished 6th out of 10 teams at the 2017 GLVC Championships, even with only 9 swimmers. The conference is one of the top Division II conferences in the country, including leaders Drury – whose men’s and women’s team were both the NCAA Championship runners-up in 2021.
The school is located in Western Illinois, on the border with Missouri and about two hours northwest of St. Louis. The school is home to a 6-lane, 25-yard pool.
Founded in 1860 by Franciscan friars, Quincy University is a small Catholic university emphasizing the sciences, liberal arts, and the professions. Tuition for full-time students for the 2020-2021 school year was $31,160, and enrollment was 1,124 last fall – an increase from the prior year.
More than a third of the school’s student body is made up of student-athletes – 368 for the 2019-2020 academic year.
The announcement was specifically of the addition of swimming teams, with no mention of diving.
Men’s swimming. University of Illinois doesn’t have Men’s Swimming.
I have major love for any school adding swimming! Let’s goooooooooooo Quincy!
Could be a sleeper program. Closed enough to the Chicago area and St Louis so can recruit an area rich in talent. School has. Good academic scholarship program, so stacking academic and athletic an athlete could have a very nice package.
Would be great job!