University of Maryland – Baltimore County coach Chad Cradock tells us today that his men’s Division I program will join the Coastal Collegiate Swimming Association in 2014.
“We’re very excited to be joining the CCSA as it is a conference championship that is supported by several competitive conferences including the America East,” said head swimming and diving coach Chad Cradock. “Our program would like to thank UMBC President Freeman Hrabowski, Vice President for Student Affairs Nancy Young, and Director of Athletics Tim Hall for their support in us making the change.”
The majority of UMBC’s 19 varsity sports are in the American East conference, which sponsors both men’s and women’s swimming, but that conference only has three programs that sponsor men’s swimming: UMBC, Binghamton, and Maine. The UMBC men won the men’s conference championship last year: their 9th in 10 seasons.
The UMBC women will continue to compete in the American East conference, where they finished 2nd last year.
Cradock made it clear that this was a competitive decision. “The CCSA Championships will allow our men to continue to compete in a championship environment against quality swimmers in some of the best pools in the nation.”
UMBC will make no waste of time in completing the transition: they will compete at their first CCSA Championship meet this season: 2014. Davidson College won the 2013 men’s title, beating College of Charletson and Gardner-Webb for the men’s crown.
No word yet from Maine or Binghamton about what their plans are from the future, nor the conference on whether to continue sponsoring men’s swimming. The CCSA is a swimming-only conference.
CCSA Members – Men’s Programs Only
Davidson
Gardner-Webb
Howard
University of the Incarnate Word
University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC)
New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT)
Virginia Military Institute (VMI)
American East Members – Men’s Programs Only
Binghamton
Maine