Syracuse will not cut its swimming and diving teams after this season, instead phasing out the program during the next three years to allow all current swimmers and divers to finish their careers competing at the Division I level.

No more scholarships will be granted to the teams, and no players will be added. Once the last of the current freshmen finish their eligibility in 2011, the program will dissolve.

The move comes after the announcement last June 1 that the men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams would be cut after the 2007-08 season, and a women’s ice hockey team would begin competition in 2008-09.

Director of Athletics Daryl Gross met with the swimming and diving teams at a 3 p.m. meeting yesterday to announce the decision to keep the program afloat for the current athletes.

‘We have had some student-athletes who, although they recognize the program has been discontinued, have expressed an interest in finding a way to complete their career as student-athletes at SU,’ Gross said in a statement yesterday. He was not made available for further comment.

The ‘phase-out’ program will require Syracuse to use a ‘reduced operating budget and competitive schedule,’ according to the press release. Whether or not head coach Lou Walker, who has been the coach of the women’s program since its inception 31 years ago and the men’s since 1979, would return is unknown.

The current members of the team under scholarship have three choices: to continue swimming at Syracuse under scholarship, to remain at Syracuse under scholarship but not swim or to transfer to another program.

‘Obviously, it’s exciting,’ junior swimmer Peter Gollands said. ‘Some of us will get to swim here for another three years.’

That’s the sentiment shared by sophomore Ryan Corcoran, who said many of the underclassmen on the team have thought about leaving.

‘Before I was leaning toward leaving, but now I’m strongly leaning toward staying,’ Corcoran said.

Twelve members of the current 36-player roster are freshmen and they would be the players on the final 2010-11 roster. Future recruiting for swimming and diving ceased before this season.

A spokeswoman from the Big East could not confirm whether Syracuse would remain a member of the conference for swimming and diving.

The swimming and diving programs were cut in June after viability studies conducted by the university’s athletic department. Gross cited the estimated cost of $35 million for a new natatorium to replace antiquated Webster Pool as a sticking point.

‘If we are going to have a swimming program here, then it’s very important that we have the resources to do it the right way,’ Gross said last June. ‘Part of those resources would be getting a new natatorium, a new pool facility, diving and all those types of things. The cost for those is enormous, and they’re costs that we can’t put into it right now.’

Since the cut, which is the first to the SU athletic program since 1997, were announced, the athletic department faced criticism for its decision to cut the programs after the upcoming season. More than 4,000 people have signed a petition on SaveSyracuseSwimming.com.

The Student Association assembly heard presentations on the case for reinstatement from members of the swimming and diving teams in September and on Oct. 1 and created a Syracuse University Swimming and Diving Task Force to ‘conduct an investigation into the process and decision making used by the Athletic Department to cut funding for the Syracuse University Swimming and Diving Team.’

Gross met with former SA President Ryan Kelly near the end of the fall semester and told Kelly at the time that he would work on some way to help the swimming teams. Kelly said yesterday he is pleased with the results.

‘After meeting with him, he really did listen to the students’ concerns,’ Kelly said. ‘It’s the best we could have done right now. I’m pretty happy with it.’

Gollands said the announcement by Gross ‘came out of nowhere.’ But, he said, now there’s renewed fervor among the team that the program can be permanently saved.

Said Gollands, ‘This is a big step.’

Published on January 15, 2008 at 12:00 pm