Maryville University has cut its swimming program following the conclusion of the 2024-25 season, multiple sources have told SwimSwam.
Maryville, an NCAA Division II school based out of St. Louis, is coming off competing at the Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC) Championships in mid-February, and swimmers were reportedly told the week after that the program would be eliminated beginning next season.
Scholarships are expected to be honored through next year.
On Feb. 6, less than a week before the start of the GLVC Championships, Maryville’s first-year head coach, Savannah Erickson, abruptly left the team, with the school and Erickson declining to comment on the reasoning.
Mary Jane Woehler was the lone coach remaining on the staff and served through the GLVC Championships.
At last month’s conference meet, the Maryville men and women finished last in the field, a repeat of last year. The Saints placed 10th out of 10 teams on the women’s side, and the men finished 11th out of 11 teams.
Both teams wrapped the dual meet season with a 3-9 record.
Mayrville currently list seven women and 11 men on their roster. Of the 18 swimmers, only four are in either their senior or fifth year.
Maryville launched its women’s swimming program in 2013, while the men’s team joined in 2015-16.
Maryville has an estimated population of 9,200 students—5,700 undergrads and 3,500 graduate students. With swimming being cut, the school sponsors 11 men’s sports and 12 women’s sports.
The news comes shortly after a Division I school, Cal Poly, announced it was cutting its swimming & diving programs.
Firstly, as a former MU swimmer (Alumni), I feel for my teammates who just had their program cut. To be clear they are an amazing group of swimmers and any team they join would be lucky to have them. To my former teammates, I wish you the best and hope you find something out there for you.
Secondly, MU certainly deserves some of the blame for this but not all of it. Over the past few years, the team has overcome more challenges just to be at the conference than most teams will ever think about. What has happened here is these challenges have snowballed beyond the point of no return.
MU doesn’t have a pool (anymore), which makes… Read more »
I’m not surprised at all by this move. I interviewed for the HC position back in 2021. I could tell quickly that the old AD, Lonnie Folks, wasn’t 100% all-in when it came to the overall success/sustainability of the program. Salary was a joke and working conditions would have been tough in comparison to other programs.
Is there a list of all the college programs that have closed since 2019? Maybe an excel file type listing – location, division, club size, male, female, region of the US and the conference they were with? Also maybe the primary reason for closure? Facility issues, funding, and all that stuff. It would help parents & recruits know what questions to ask of a potential school.
There was a wrestling guy who was maintaining one for all sports for a while, but he seems to have gone back to just wrestling.
We’ll try and put one together and maintain it, this is a good idea.
As a former swimmer at Maryville, as a former assistant coach of the program, and even interim head for a a very short period of time- I can say I am terribly sad about the news of the cut, disappointed, frustrated, angry – but not surprised.
Through my time there as an athlete and staff, it was clear the athletic department saw swim as an afterthought. There was no true investment into the program, and the team was never given a real opportunity or chance in my opinion. I was called last year for the head coach position, the offer was WELL below what I currently make as a head coach, and was also less than what I was… Read more »
Thank you so much for your perspective. As a parent of a swimmer that was considering the school, it truly did feel that they were not willing to invest in the program. I feel for the kids that fought hard just to be left behind.
Cal Poly was also cut
Cal Poly Discontinues Swimming & Diving – Cal Poly
Logo looks like the Gmail app
While this is sad, it’s not surprising at all. As a former GLVC swimmer, Maryville was kind of a punchline and never seemed to gain any traction within the conference. They didn’t have a home pool and had to train at a local high school pool (parkway north hs I believe). Their coaching staff had massive turnover. I believe they had a new head coach almost every year or 2 when I swam. The combination of those two factors made fielding a team very hard, let alone a competitive one. One thing that stood out in my mind was that I had never seen them swim the final session of conference until this year. They typically would skip the last… Read more »
thought that was the gmail logo at first