Welcome to the gateway for all things related to the UMass Swimming, Diving and Water Polo programs. With over 75 years of history, these UMass programs have graduated hundreds of student-athletes, won dozens of New England and Atlantic-10 Swimming and Diving Championships, as well as many Eastern Water Polo Championships, and enriched the lives of countless young men and women! |
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The first weekend in May has been an annual celebration for UMass Aquatics for many years now, the unpredictability of the weather has never dampened the spirit of the celebration or the generosity of the alumni. This year we not only had great weather, but also a fantastic turnout from both the Men’s and Women Alumni, with over 150 attendees representing 5 decades of athletes. The weekend started off at 10am on Friday with the meeting of the FUMSD board members. Some changes were made to the charter and members of the board. Follow this link to the meeting minutes and new charter.
At 3pm, Russ, Bob and Mandy celebrated another championship season with the swim & dive teams, provided some parting gifts for the outgoing seniors and bestowed honors on others. The full list of honors can be found here.
Following the team function, the alumni, friends and former coaches started pouring in to honor Russ for his 30 years service to UMass. GT Ladd ’90 hosted the event and kicked things off with a multi-media chronology of Russ during his years at UMass. Among the 125+ in attendance was Bey Melamed (he coached at UMass before Russ took the job), and many Masters swimmers that reside in the Amherst area, appropriately nicknamed UMAMA. Russ’s teammate Joe Hebert ’76, current coaches Bob Newcomb and Mandy Hixon, and several former swimmers took the stage to playfully remind Russ of his many accomplishments.
8:00am Saturday morning, 46 alumni and supporters hit the links at Mill Valley Golf Club for the 10th annual golf tournament. The competition was fierce with the foursome Chris Martin, Kate Laporte, Dave Laporte, and John Luviano outdistancing the perennial powerhouse foursome of David Koritkoski, Hank Koritkoski, John Koritkoski, Rodney Dixon in a playoff after both teams posted a score of 61 for the day. Other honors went to Jim Gregg for the men’s longest drive, Anne Lasek for the women’s longest drive and Greg Chartier for the ‘closest to the pin’ competitions.
The afternoon kicked off with the women swimmers taking on the alumni in a softball game on the lower Boyden fields. This was a well attended event with over 20 women alumni participating.
The events concluded at Russ & Sue’s house for the cookout and auction. Among the items available this year were a round trip ticket anywhere in the US, Red Sox getaway package in Detroit, and a custom built surfboard. The auction was quite competitive and when the dust settled, over $20,000 was donated! |
Missed the Weekend?
If you were unable to attend the weekend, but still want to show your support, there are several ways you can do so! Here are several options for providing a monetary gift to the programs:
The UMass Fund has provided a designation for the Men’s and Women’s swim programs by going to their website. |
