Quincy University is going to hold its first home swim meet in years on October 14 at 6 p.m. The team is hoping to win the meet against the St. Ambrose University Bees. The swim meet marks the real start of their first official season since the sport was reinstated.

“I knew I wanted to be a coach when I was in college, it was like the most fun that I had. So I knew that I wanted to first get back to that and then coach college kids. I coached club for like nine years, I’m from Rochester New York originally so I coached around there. Then I coached for the Rochester Institute of Technology, was a volunteer for them. I went to the State University of New York at New Paltz, spent two years as an assistant there. Went to John Carroll University in Cleveland, I was only there for one year and then I was hired at Frostburg State University, which is a DII school in western Maryland. I was there for three years as the head coach, it was my first head coach job,” Bryan Christiansen, the new head swimming coach, said.

Christiansen was named the head coach of the swim team last fall, this was announced before most students on campus knew swimming was coming back to campus. 

“I just really was like this is something I can really believe in, this is something I can sell, because I really believe in this kind of education. Where you can build a relationship with your professors, have a lot of influence on campus, and just kind of have that intimate environment. I really am down for everything Quincy is about. We are Division II in one of the top conferences in the country in the GLVC. I just think we have a ton of potential here,” Christiansen said. 

Christiansen made quick work of recruiting as he posted about the athletes he had signed after only a couple months of being hired. The team is currently composed of very diverse individuals, many of which are international students and transfers. 

“So I’m actually a transfer student, I went through this agency called Aspire Atlantic and they helped me find Quincy. The school stood out to me, especially because there is a new swim program. It just ticked all of the boxes I’d say. We have a really fast team, I’m really excited about it. I am a 200 and 100 butterfly swimmer, so that’s not very common events. As long as I improve then I’m happy,” Ethan Anderson, an international transfer, said.

Anderson is one of the two student athletes, on the small 16 athlete combined mens and womens swim team, that are from South Africa.

“My coach was the assistant coach at my old school for a few weeks. As soon as my old school closed down he came and offered us scholarships. As soon as I came to Quincy and visited for the first time I picked Quincy right away,” Dennis Mhini, another international swimmer, said.

Mhini is from Tanzania and expressed how excited he was to show how fast the team is in this upcoming meet. Even though the team is small both Mhini and Anderson are confident in their team’s abilities.

Spectators hoping to watch the meet will have to find a seat outside the pool. The pool deck area is not large enough to accommodate spectator stands. The coach recommends watching the meet from the windows in the weight room and the windows in the basketball courts.