{"id":1571,"date":"2026-01-15T08:00:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T08:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/moments\/?p=1571"},"modified":"2026-01-21T14:56:30","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T14:56:30","slug":"swim-dive-team-making-waves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/moments\/2026\/01\/15\/swim-dive-team-making-waves\/","title":{"rendered":"Making Waves"},"content":{"rendered":"
The members of Marshall University\u2019s swimming and diving team<\/a> are a unique group of athletes.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s about pursuing your best, and it\u2019s delayed gratification,\u201d said Head Coach Ian Walsh. \u201cYou have to stack your days and work incredibly hard over a long period of time. You have to be really patient.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that\u2019s a beautiful conduit for life. You have to stay at it. You can\u2019t 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u2019re representing the Herd this month in the Cam Henderson Center.<\/p>\n

Swimming gets a popularity bump every four years during the summer Olympics because it\u2019s an exhilarating sport to watch, he said, but he\u2019d 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\u2019re back at the Cam Henderson Center at 9:30 a.m. Jan. 24 for a meet against Toledo.<\/p>\n

\n\tWe want people to come to a meet and to show them that swimming and diving can be exciting.<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t- Ian Walsh<\/span>\n\t<\/div>\n\n

\u201cWe want to create a great environment for our women. We plan to have a little bit more things going on in the downtime \u2013 like in basketball \u2013 to create a fun, engaging environment,\u201d Walsh said. \u201cWe want people to come to a meet and to show them that swimming and diving can be exciting and have return visitors.\u201d<\/p>\n

Walsh is so committed to bringing more attention to the sport that he clocked a \u201crecord\u201d 50-meter breaststroke wearing green and white overalls earlier in the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was just for fun \u2014 to promote our sport to make it more fun and engaging for fans,\u201d 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\u2019s up for a challenge if it brings attention to his hardworking team.<\/p>\n

\"Ian<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Marshall\u2019s team is in its 23rd year as a program, with 24 female swimmers and four female divers. The university previously had a men\u2019s swim program, from 1968-88.<\/p>\n

Walsh\u2019s years as head coach at Marshall have been marked by change.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we transitioned to the Sun Belt, they didn\u2019t 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\u2019re in the American Conference, which is very different,\u201d he said. \u201cSo there\u2019s been a lot of transition with our program, but I feel like every year, as a swimming and diving program, performance-wise, we\u2019ve moved the needle.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve set over 110 all-time top 10 performances. We\u2019ve beat over 70% of our school records since I returned in 2018, so it\u2019s been positive,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\n\tI think everybody feels like we get to do this, and we don\u2019t have to do it. That\u2019s how I feel.<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t- Lauren McNamara<\/span>\n\t<\/div>\n\n

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\u2019s history.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s very much a team sport.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a really close family feel with this sport,\u201d said McNamara, who specializes in butterfly. \u201cYes, 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve never felt closer to a team,\u201d said McNamara, who goes by the nickname \u201cLo Lo\u201d because of all the Laurens on the team. \u201cEveryone here feels like they belong and they have a spot. I think everybody feels like we get to do this, and we don\u2019t have to do it. That\u2019s how I feel. It\u2019s also opened up so many opportunities inside and outside of the pool.\u201d<\/p>\n

Junior Charlotte Thompson said that after three years, she\u2019s seen several teammates come and go, but the team\u2019s connection just grows.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think everybody feels like we get to do this, and we don\u2019t have to do it. That\u2019s how I feel. It\u2019s also opened up so many opportunities inside and outside of the pool.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWatching everyone show up for each other has been so special, inside and out of the pool.<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t- Charlotte Thompson<\/span>\n\t<\/div>\n\n

\u201cWatching everyone show up for each other has been so special, inside and out of the pool,\u201d said Thompson, a distance freestyle swimmer. \u201cWe always do a great job of being here for each other. I couldn\u2019t imagine not being here (at Marshall).\u201d<\/p>\n

As a team, they\u2019re 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cThrough the recruiting process, we\u2019re really intentional about who we\u2019re trying to attract,\u201d Walsh said. \u201cIn our profession \u2013 it\u2019s not like football or basketball. There\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

\u201cHow you navigate your four or five years here is super important and lays the groundwork for what you\u2019re going to do for the rest of your life. We really talk about coaching the whole person. I don\u2019t want someone who is just going to come here to swim and dive. They need to be great in the classroom.\u201d<\/p>\n

He enjoys alumni weekends, when swimmers come back after entering careers as doctors, nurses, engineers, physical therapists \u2013 the list goes on.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always say you are you who you hang out with,\u201d Walsh said. \u201cIf you\u2019re 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,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

There are a lot of amazing students who work extremely hard on the Marshall University campus, Walsh said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat sport teaches is like getting a master\u2019s in what a really good team looks like,\u201d he said. \u201cYou can see what a really good teammate looks like, what a really bad teammate looks like. There\u2019s something really special about competing at a Division I level and leaning on 27 other women to accomplish something you\u2019ve never done before. That\u2019s what is unique about sport, in my opinion.\u201d<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The members of Marshall University\u2019s swimming and diving team are a unique group of athletes. 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. \u201cIt\u2019s about pursuing your best, and it\u2019s delayed gratification,\u201d said Head […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":198,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-moments"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/moments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1571","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/moments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/moments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/moments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/198"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/moments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1571"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/moments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1571\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1602,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/moments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1571\/revisions\/1602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/moments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/moments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/moments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}