The Quincy University swim program has made quite a splash in just three years. The swimming Hawks have made a name for themselves around campus with a so-far-so-good year. The team originally started with 16 members, consisting of 10 men and six women. Now jump to the 2024-25 season where they now have 32 men and 20 women equaling 52 total. On the women’s side, this is not its first attempt at having a team. In 2016, a woman-only team was started. However, it only lasted its inaugural year and the next and eventually folded.

Growing the team surely wasn’t easy for coach Bryan Christiansen while being in the fastest Division II conference in swimming. The GLVC in the swimming world consists of a team that has won or been the national champ runner-up and one year one of each, the past four years. There is also 4-5 annually nationally ranked teams throughout the season.

“Set the Standard’ was the motto of year one for the team,” Izabella Sparrow said.

The team wanted to have consistency for the following years. But consistency was no friend of the Quincy University swim team. The program has battled major adversity throughout its existence. Whether that be logistical issues, slow recruiting at times, or struggling to identify a solid team culture. The team has started to find its stride on the competition aspect, as the men finished for the first time in its existence with an above .500 win percentage going 6-3. Followed by the women, with last year going 1-6 in meets to now, having a full-scoring roster of swimmers (18) for the first time in program history, with a 3-5 record.

The team looks to build on their successful sophomore season conference meet at this year’s conference meet in Elkhart, Indiana starting on February 11.

”I’m never all that satisfied. We are starting to throw our weight around in the conference but there’s still so much more to improve on, next year is our first year where we are a full team, so I’m excited to see what that looks like for us next year,” Christiansen said.

The team sent one swimmer to Division II nationals last year and is looking for more of a team effort this year at nationals.

“Being a student athlete isn’t easy, especially in swimming the sport is extremely taxing both mentally and physically. With the season stretching from August to mid-March and it being the longest season in the NCAA it’s also hard to stay engaged and motivated day in and day out. To compete at such a high level and maintain good grades is super impressive,” assistant coach Nick Angeli said.

Both sides are able to find success in the pool and hitting the books, posting impressive team GPAs semester in and semester out.

Nearing the end of year three, the Hawks are getting ready to switch gears towards next fall where they look to bring in another decent sized freshman class to add to the Hawks nest in the pool.