David Nolan, Jack Bauerle Among 2023 Pennsylvania Aquatics Hall of Fame Inductees

The Pennsylvania Aquatics Hall of Fame has published its list of inductees in the class of 2023: a star-studded group that will be honored at the 2023 PIAA High School State Swimming & Diving Championships at Bucknell University in February.

That includes American Record breaker David Nolan, NCAA title-winning coach Jack Bauerle, and World Record breaker Susan Doerr.

Bauerle retired at the end of last season as the head coach at the University of Georgia, his alma mater, where he was one of the most-successful coaches in NCAA history. His teams have won seven NCAA Women’s Swimming & Diving National Championships and 12 SEC Women’s Swimming & Diving Championships. He is a seven-time NCAA Coach of the Year, 18-time SEC Coach of the Year, and his athletes won a total of 110 NCAA event titles.

He was also a school-record setter at Georgia as an athlete.

Bauerle was born in Glenside, Pennsylvania and began his swimming career at the Germantown YMCA, the Manor Lu Swim Club, and the Philadelphia Aquatics Club. In 1970, he was a co-captain of the La Salle College High School team, which won four team titles during his high school career.

Nolan is a native of Hershey, Pennsylvania where in 2011 he set one of the most spectacular National High School Records that the sport has ever seen, and one that might not be touched for a while. Nolan swam 1:41.39, which took more than two seconds off his own national record-setting time from a year prior and was a second faster than the winning time at the NCAA Championships that season.

At the time, only Ryan Lochte, Bradley Ally, and Michael Phelps had been faster.

At that meet, he also broke the National High School Record in the 100 back by 1.2 seconds.

Nolan went on to a successful collegiate career at Stanford where he became the first swimmer under 1:40 in the 200 IM.

The class also includes Susan Doerr, who was born in Bryn Mawr and went to high school at Abington Friends School in Abington, Pennsylvania and the University of Pennsylvania. She led the Vesper Boat Club to the United States National Championship in 1961, a year when she also set the World Record in the 100 meter fly that stood for almost a year.

At 15 years old, she also swam a leg in the heats of the women’s 400 free relay at the 1960 Olympics for the US, which went on to win gold in finals. In 1960, prelims swimmers were not awarded Olympic medals.

The Pennsylvania Aquatics Hall of Fame was established at Penn State in 1968, and recognizes “those Pennsylvanians who have exhibited extraordinary service and achievement through aquatics.” Honorees are memorialized via a plaque with pictures and brief summaries of their accomplishments.

The Full 2023 Class is Below:

• Jack Bauerle (b. Glenside, attended La Salle College High School) – 7-time NCAA title winning head coach at Georgia
• Nina Harmer (b. Philadelphia, Vesper Boat Club) – 1960 & 1964 US Olympian, 1963 Pan American Games champion in the 100 backstroke. Swam in the heats of the 400 medley relay, which won gold in finals in 1964.
• Susan Doerr (b. Philadelphia, Vesper Boat Club) – 1960 US Olympian, swam in the heats of the 400 free relay, which won gold in finals. World Record breaker in the 100-meter fly.
• Sue Heon (attended Abington Heights High School, University of Pittsburgh) – Qualified for boycotted 1980 Olympics; finished 4th at 1984 Olympics in the 400 IM.
• David Nolan (b. Hershey, attended Hershey High School) – National High School Record breaker, NCAA Champion, first man under 1:40 in the 200-yard IM.
• Carolyn Green (b. Germantown) – Finished 4th in the 400 free at the 1952 Summer Olympics. Won gold medals on the 400 free relay at the 1951 and 1955 Pan American Games, and silver medals in the 400 free at the 1951 and 1955 Pan American Games.
• Jeanne Howley – Long-time PIAA/Capital Area Swim League official; PIAA’s former statewide interpreter for swimming & diving.