After forty years without a swim team on campus, Hanover College in southeast Indiana has announced plans to bring back a varsity men’s and women’s swimming & diving program to its athletic department.
Recruiting has already begun under the recently-named head coach Blake Braden, with the intended implementation of the team to occur in time for the 2018-19 NCAA season. Hanover had an intramural swim program from 1969-1977, training in the J. Graham Brown Campus Center pool that no longer exists, but the school has been without a swim team of any sort since then.
There is currently no pool available to Hanover students on their campus, so they’ve reached an agreement with nearby Southwestern High School and will be training and competing at their six-lane, 25-meter pool as soon as the program is in place.
New head coach Braden will have the 2017-18 season to recruit for the program’s start in fall of 2018. Braden swam at Millikin University in Decatur, IL, before serving the last four seasons as an assistant coach for the Millikin program as well as serving three years as the Decatur Swim Club’s head coach. Braden also has experience coaching Indiana high school swimmers, having spent four seasons leading Franklin Central High School prior to coaching at Millikin.
Located just northeast of Louisville, Hanover College has an enrollment of just over 1,100 students. Hanover is a liberal arts school affiliated with the Presbyterian Church. The Hanover swimming & diving team is the sixth member of the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference to sponsor an aquatics team, along with Anderson University, Franklin College, Manchester University, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology and Transylvania University.
Hanover competes in the NCAA’s Division III.
Indiana is a great swimming state! Great news for swimming and for Indiana and KY swimmers. Now, with 6 teams, Transylvania can return to the HCAC, rounding out the competitive field at 6 teams, with conference championships at Franklin College.
Kentucky swimming is also on the rise, considering how strong UL has been, and how much UK has improved recently. Great USAS programs at Lakeside, NK Clippers, Wildcat Aquatics, Lexington Dolphins, and Triton. Tough loss of the WKU program, but there are NCAA programs at Bellarmine (D2), Centre, and Transy (D3). The difference between Indiana and KY as far as USA and HS swimming goes, is that IN high schools, school districts, and towns long ago made a commitment to… Read more »
This is exciting news for the HCAC. Rose-Hulman will host the 2017-2108 HCAC Championship meet at new 10 lane 50 meter Vigo County Aquatic Center that opened in Terre Haute about 1.5 years ago. Franklin College has won past 4 Liberal Arts Championships on Men’s side and Women won meet for 1st time in 2017. Rose-Hulman men won CCIW championship in 2015 and 2016. Looking forward to inaugural meet February 9th-11th!
That’s exactly what I mean about the great support for swimming in Indiana. A brand-new aquatic center that will benefit the schools and the entire swimming community, as well as bring swimming back to Indiana State University. How many of those kinds of facilities are there in Indiana, as opposed to Kentucky, right across the river? Indiana has an incredible commitment to swimming, and it shows in their facilities and the number of colleges that offer swimming. Top-tier pools like Indy and Purdue, along with Bloomington and Notre Dame. HS pools like Vigo, Carmel, Franklin, etc.
Indiana IS swimming!
A step in the right direction with all the teams cutting programs it’s nice to see one bring one back! #swimmingontherise
Been waiting for this for a while!