Like other athletes, they work extremely hard, but with fewer swim meets and opportunities to compete, they have to be deliberate about training with a long-term goal in mind.
“It’s about pursuing your best, and it’s delayed gratification,” said Head Coach Ian Walsh. “You have to stack your days and work incredibly hard over a long period of time. You have to be really patient.
“I think that’s a beautiful conduit for life. You have to stay at it. You can’t just show up and be really good. You have to continually challenge yourself physically and mentally, and I think that is a good skillset for when they get out into the real world.”
These are women who will absolutely graduate and leave Marshall someday with the mindset for success, he said, but what Walsh would love to see now is a big, Kelly green-clad audience cheering them while they’re representing the Herd this month in the Cam Henderson Center.
Swimming gets a popularity bump every four years during the summer Olympics because it’s an exhilarating sport to watch, he said, but he’d love to see that same enthusiasm in person, with fans showing up to support the Herd swimmers and divers. They compete at 6 p.m. Friday, Jan. 16, against Duquesne, and at 11 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 17, against Duquesne and Bowling Green, at the Cam Henderson Center. They’re back at the Cam Henderson Center at 11 a.m. Jan. 24 for a meet against Toledo.
“We want to create a great environment for our women. We plan to have a little bit more things going on in the downtime – like in basketball – to create a fun, engaging environment,” Walsh said. “We want people to come to a meet and to show them that swimming and diving can be exciting and have return visitors.”
Walsh is so committed to bringing more attention to the sport that he clocked a “record” 50-meter breaststroke wearing green and white overalls earlier in the season.
“It was just for fun — to promote our sport to make it more fun and engaging for fans,” he said. Breaking world swim records in overalls is not actually a thing, he said, adding that he felt it, having not competed himself since 2010. But he’s up for a challenge if it brings attention to his hardworking team.
Walsh is in his eighth year as head coach for Marshall Swimming and Diving, following coaching jobs in California, New York, and an earlier position as assistant coach at Marshall from 2013-16. During that time, he met his wife, Sarah, with whom he now has four children, ages 2-7.
Marshall’s team is in its 23rd year as a program, with 24 female swimmers and four female divers. The university previously had a men’s swim program, from 1968-88.
Walsh’s years as head coach at Marshall have been marked by change.
“When we transitioned to the Sun Belt, they didn’t sponsor our sport so we were an affiliate with Missouri Valley for a year, and then the Sun Belt brought us in for two years, but then they discontinued swimming and diving so now we’re in the American Conference, which is very different,” he said. “So there’s been a lot of transition with our program, but I feel like every year, as a swimming and diving program, performance-wise, we’ve moved the needle.
“We’ve set over 110 all-time top 10 performances. We’ve beat over 70% of our school records since I returned in 2018, so it’s been positive,” he said.
Two of the swimmers, Lauren McNamara and Kseniia Luniushina, represented Marshall at the U.S. Open in Austin, Texas. Several others have clocked times that are among the fastest in Marshall’s history.
In meets, scores for both swimming and diving are brought together to decide winning teams, and the swimmers will tell you, especially at the college level, it’s very much a team sport.
“We have a really close family feel with this sport,” said McNamara, who specializes in butterfly. “Yes, we do our own events, but we also work together to go up against other teams. When we were younger, it was more individual, but now we do it for each other.
“I’ve never felt closer to a team,” said McNamara, who goes by the nickname “Lo Lo” because of all the Laurens on the team. “Everyone here feels like they belong and they have a spot. I think everybody feels like we get to do this, and we don’t have to do it. That’s how I feel. It’s also opened up so many opportunities inside and outside of the pool.”
Junior Charlotte Thompson said that after three years, she’s seen several teammates come and go, but the team’s connection just grows.
“I think everybody feels like we get to do this, and we don’t have to do it. That’s how I feel. It’s also opened up so many opportunities inside and outside of the pool.”
“Watching everyone show up for each other has been so special, inside and out of the pool,” said Thompson, a distance freestyle swimmer. “We always do a great job of being here for each other. I couldn’t imagine not being here (at Marshall).”
As a team, they’re good students, too. Marshall swimmers and divers have ranked in the top 15 in GPA across all Division I swimming and diving programs in the country for about 10 semesters in a row, Walsh said. He said that he deliberately recruits athletes who will help each other grow inside and outside of the pool.
“Through the recruiting process, we’re really intentional about who we’re trying to attract,” Walsh said. “In our profession – it’s not like football or basketball. There’s no professional swimming. Life after sport, we take very seriously, and I think you can develop these women into great athletes and walk away having a really great experience.
“How you navigate your four or five years here is super important and lays the groundwork for what you’re going to do for the rest of your life. We really talk about coaching the whole person. I don’t want someone who is just going to come here to swim and dive. They need to be great in the classroom.”
He enjoys alumni weekends, when swimmers come back after entering careers as doctors, nurses, engineers, physical therapists – the list goes on.
“I always say you are you who you hang out with,” Walsh said. “If you’re around people who go to class, want to be the absolute best at their craft, both in the classroom and in the pool, this is going to be a good fit for you,” he said.
There are a lot of amazing students who work extremely hard on the Marshall University campus, Walsh said.
“What sport teaches is like getting a master’s in what a really good team looks like,” he said. “You can see what a really good teammate looks like, what a really bad teammate looks like. There’s something really special about competing at a Division I level and leaning on 27 other women to accomplish something you’ve never done before. That’s what is unique about sport, in my opinion.”
