GLVC release

GLVC video interview with Missouri S&T director of athletics Mark Mullin

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – Missouri S&T's swimming team now has a home with all the university's other athletic teams in the Great Lakes Valley Conference, as the league announced today that it will begin sponsorship of swimming as a championship sport beginning in the 2013-14 season.

It has been over three decades since the Miner swimming program has competed for a conference championship in the league in which its other sports also competed in, last winning the Missouri Intercollegiate Athletic Association title in 1982. 

Since then, S&T has competed in championship meets at the end of the regular season with other institutions whose own conferences do not sponsor such a meet in that sport, most recently in the New South Intercollegiate Swimming Championships where the Miners have won the last six meets and are competing for a seventh straight title this weekend.  The Miners have won 17 such championship meets since 1985.

A total of seven teams will make the GLVC's men's swimming conference, which will include current league members Bellarmine University, Drury University – the eight-time defending NCAA Division II national champion – the University of Indianapolis, Lewis University, William Jewell College and league newcomer Truman State University, which will become a full member of the GLVC this summer.

The conference will hold its first championship beginning exactly one year from today, from Feb. 12-15, 2014, in St. John, Ind.

“The addition of men's and women's swimming and diving to the GLVC gives us instant credibility as one of the nation's top swimming conferences, as our members have earned numerous national championships and top-10 rankings,” said GLVC Commissioner Jim Naumovich.  “Most importantly though, our members are now able to bring their swimming programs under our umbrella and compete against one another for the right to be GLVC champion.” 

Three of the GLVC squads currently rank among the top eight in NCAA Division II in the latest College Swimming Coaches Association of America rankings, with Drury ranked first, Missouri S&T sixth and Indianapolis eighth.