The Marshall women’s swimming & diving team will join the Missouri Valley Conference next season as an affiliate member. That pushes the MVC Women’s Swimming & Diving Championship field to 10 teams, making it one of the biggest conferences in the country.
Along with University of Illinois-Chicago, they are one of two new programs that will join the conference for the coming season. UIC joined as a full member.
This year, Marshall moved most of its athletics programs to the Sun Belt Conference, along with James Madison, Old Dominion, and Southern Miss. The Sun Belt Conference voted over the summer to add a women’s swimming & diving championship in 2024, but that leaves the Thundering Herd orphaned for a season.
While there were rumors that the team would join the swimming-and-beach-volleyball-specific CCSA, the school instead pivoted to join the Missouri Valley.
James Madison has not announced a new conference affiliation for swimming & diving for this season, and their schedule indicates that they will use the ECAC Championships as their season finale for the second-straight season. Old Dominion, which also sponsors swimming & diving, has not announced a season schedule nor a conference affiliation for 2022-2023.
The Thundering Herd join Evansville, UIC, Illinois State, Indiana State, Missouri State, UNI, Southern Illinois, Valparaiso, and fellow affiliate member Little Rock as MVC members in women’s swimming & diving. Last year, Missouri State wrapped up its sixth-straight Missouri Valley Conference Championship. The title win marked the 18th in the past 20 years for Missouri State which leads all NCAA Division I women’s swimming and diving programs.
The 2022 Championships will be hosted by Northern Iowa at the University of Iowa.
“Our priority was to find a conference that provided our program with an elite conference championship environment,” Marshall head coach Ian Walsh said. “It is a competitive conference, sending multiple athletes to the NCAA Championship last season, puts together first class meet operations, and competes in some of the fastest venues in the country.”
“Looking forward to the Thundering Herd participating in our women’s swimming & diving championship,” said Commissioner Jeff Jackson, now in his second year at the MVC. “I attended my first last season and know first-hand their student-athletes will have a tremendous experience.”
Marshall finished 3rd out of six teams at last year’s Conference USA Championship meet. While the team brought in only three freshmen this season, they return 17 out of their 20 conference scorers from last season and project to compete for second place in the conference along with Illinois State, Indiana State, Southern Illinois, and UNI.
2022 Missouri Valley Conference Championships Final Standings, Women’s Swimming & Diving:
- Missouri State – 889.5
- Illinois State – 492.5
- Indiana State – 474
- Southern Illinois – 473.5
- UNI – 431.5
- Evansville – 328
- Little Rock – 281
- Valparaiso – 68
UIC and Marshall will both join as provisional members next season.
Does this mean the Sun Belt championship meet (women only) in 2024 will be a 3-team meet with Marshall, JMU, and ODU? As far as I know, none of the prior Sunbelt teams have a swim team. Am I missing anyone?
Georgia Southern