By William Bowman
SELINSGROVE — Coaching in Division III, Jerry Foley quickly realized that there were a number of reasons why students were part of the Susquehanna swim team. Some just wanted to be part of the team, get some work in and enjoy their time. Others had bigger goals, wanting to compete at the highest level against some of the best swimmers in the nation.
So Foley, a long-time force in Valley swimming, had to find a way to make everybody fit. Judging by the results, Foley has done a very good job in his first season.
Foley, who was the head coach at Lewisburg High the last two years and helped turned the Sunbury YMCA program into a national power, helped lead the SU men and women to one of their best seasons ever this winter, and for the first time in school history, Susquehanna will have a representative at the NCAA Championships.
It comes as the capper to a tremendous season. The SU men went 8-2 and finished second at the Landmark Conference Championships, while the women went 8-3 and were also the conference runners-up.
Not a bad job considering the challenges Foley faced after replacing Dan Phillips, becoming SU’s third head coach in three years.
“The program had gone through a lot of transition in recent years, so we wanted to build a foundation,” said Foley, who coached Bucknell’s swimmers and divers from 1998 to 2006 before taking over Lewisburg’s upstart high school program in 2006. “Success came a lot quicker than I thought it would. But we had people really jump right in to what we were doing.”
One of those was junior Christie Savard, who will become the first SU swimmer to ever compete at the Division III swimming & diving championships. Savard, out of Conestoga, provisionally qualified for the nationals in three events at the Landmark championships — the 200 back, 200 IM and 400 IM — though she only made the final NCAA cut in the 200 back.
Nationals begin Wednesday at the University of Minnesota’s University Aquatic Center in Minneapolis. Per NCAA rules, if Savard wishes to participate in the national championships, she must compete in the 200 back. She can also compete in two other swimming events of her choice, though, and according to Foley, she will swim in the 400 IM as well and possibly the 200 IM. A final decision on the 200 IM is expected sometime before nationals begin.
While it is Savard that carries the Crusaders’ torch to nationals, Foley knows the program has taken leaps forward this year, and the reason is because of the swimmers.
“We have a mix of swimmers who really want to compete at a high level and some who want to be part of the program, and we had to make them all fit,” said Foley. “It’s been a great transition. Those who really want to compete are very self-motivated, and when you have people like that, it makes a coach’s job a lot easier.”
Savard enters nationals ranked 13th in the 200 back, 23rd in the 400 IM and 40th in the 200 IM. The top eight finishers in each event at the NCAA championships earn All-America honors. Finishers nine through 16 earn honorable mention All-America honors.
