SwimSwam contributor Kelly McCommons, a broadcast journalism student at Northern Michigan and a club swim coach, reports that Northern Michigan University’s Board of Trustees has approved the addition of a men’s and women’s swim team for the fall of 2015. This is the revival of a program that was cut in 1980: a time period where many men’s programs got the ax.
The Division II program, located in Marquette, Michigan, has been very successful – including a 12th-place finish at last year’s NCAA Championship meet. The program has placed as high as 2nd in the country at the 1992 NCAA Division II Championship meet. They will hope to continue that into men’s success beginning in the fall of 2015.
Northern Michigan has an indoor 8-lane 25-yard pool, with a separate diving well.
The women’s team competes in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) – one of the best conferences in Division II. Last year, both the men’s and women’s meets were won by Wayne State, with the Northern Michigan women placing 3rd. Hillsdale College is now the only remaining program in that conference with a women’s team and no corresponding men’s program, though there are still several members without a swimming program at all.
In an article written for The North Wind, McCommons says that the attraction for the addition was taking advantage of existing facilities and therefore avoiding a significant new cost.
McCommons says that the approval was made at the Board of Trustees meeting on Friday morning and that an official announcement is due soon. Northern Michigan will also add a women’s golf team.