Nancy Hinrichs
Head Swimming Coach
Nancy Hinrichs will take a medical leave of absence during the 2008-09 season. Nancy Hinrichs enters her 19th season as head coach for the University of Northern Colorado swimming and diving program and her 23rd year as a head coach overall in 2006-07. Hinrichs is currently the second longest tenured head coach at Northern Colorado and the longest tenured among female coaches. "The program means a lot to me and its future successes," said Hinrichs. "I came from a Division I program to UNC, so I am well aware of the challenges our program faces in our reclassification, and I am up for those challenges." After taking over the program in 1988-89, Hinrichs established herself as one of the premier swimming coaches in the nation at the Division II level. All but one of the program's 101 All-American's were crowned during her tenure, as 100 athletes have earned that honor since 1990, the most of any sport at Northern Colorado. Also in her time as coach, she has coached 47 individual North Central Conference (NCC) champions, five conference athletes of the year, four conference newcomers of the year and her athletes have broken school records 178 times. In 2005-06 the Bears competed at the Pacific Collegiate Swim Conference (PCSC) Championships for the first time, placing second behind UC San Diego and topping the other 12 teams in the field including established programs Loyola Marymount and Pepperdine. The year also saw the emergence of freshman Katie Schmitt, who set three school records (200 IM, 400 IM and 200 freestyle) during the campaign and won 24 individual events on her way to Northern Colorado Female Athlete of the Year honors. During the 2003-04 season, the program's first of reclassification to Division I, Hinrichs guided the team to a second place finish at the Midwest Classic Invitational held in Indianapolis and won Coach of the Year honors for her efforts. She also helped then junior Saree Hoopii earn Swimmer of the Year honors at the meet after Hoopii took first-place in all seven events in which she was entered and set four school records in the process. In 2004-05, she took the Bears back to the event, this time named the House of Champions Invitational, and the squad found itself trailing defending champion Miami University (Ohio) by 44 points. But the team was not content with finishing midway in the pack of the eight teams, as they rocketed to a 67-point lead after day two of the event and eventually won the independent invitational title by 130 points over the Red Hawks. Hinrichs once again garnered Coach of the Year honors, Hoopii repeated as Swimmer of the Year, senior diver Veronica Lucas earned the co-Diver of the Year award and Bears diving coach Sarah Easter was named Diving Coach of the Year. After leading the Bears to a conference co-championship in 1991, Hinrichs was named the North Central Conference Coach of the Year, an award she garnered again in 1993 and 1996. Although the conference meet was usually dominated by perennial national power North Dakota, Northern Colorado finished as runner-up in 1991 and every year from 1993 through 2001. In the program's 13 years with the NCC, the Bears never finished lower than third at the conference meet. Hinrichs coached the program's only swimming national champion in Teresa Stratman, a member of the Northern Colorado Athletic Hall of Fame, from 1989-93. Stratman, who is one of 10 athletes in NCC history to win four conference titles at one meet, was the national champion in the 1650 freestyle in 1992 and a year later repeated as champion in that event while also taking first place in the 500 freestyle. Her 13 conference titles ranks second all-time in NCC history. In her 15 years coaching the program at the Division II level, Hinrichs' teams qualified for 14 consecutive NCAA Championships, failing only to do so in her first season (1988-89). The Bears placed 17th in 1989-90, 13th a year later and 17th once again in 1991-92. But over the next 11 years the team finished in the top-10 nationally eight times, including a high finish of seventh in each 1993-94 and 1994-95. Hinrichs received the American Swimming Coaches Association (ASCA) annual Award of Excellence for 15 years of coaching All-American at the ASCA awards program in Las Vegas on Sept. 6, 2002. A varsity swimmer at Western Illinois University in Macomb, Hinrichs qualified for the Division I national meet in the breaststroke. She was a U.S. Swimming All-American in 1979-80 and held seven top-10 and two number-one national rankings as a Master Swimmer. Still swimming today, Hinrichs joined her team in the 35th Annual Ocean Mile Swim in the rough Atlantic Ocean waters off the coast of Ft. Lauderdale on Jan. 1, 2005 during the team's winter training session; Hinrichs took first place in her age division at the event. Hinrichs began her coaching career at Western Illinois and from 1978-82 she led six swimmers and one diver to the Division I nationals and built a 26-21 record. Her 1979-80 team set 24 school records and qualified 14 for regional competition and in 1981, she was named Western Illinois' Coach of the Year. In 1993, she was inducted into the Western Illinois Leatherneck Hall of Fame for her athletic and coaching achievements. Hinrichs is a certified American Swimming Coaches Association Level 5 Division II and United States Swimming (USS) coach. She served as the Officials Coordinator at the NCAA Division I Women's National Championships for five years and also on the NCAA Division II Swimming and Diving Rules Committee from 1994-99. Hinrichs spent the summer of 2005 coaching the Loveland USS Club team with Jim Nickell, one of the U.S.A. Junior National Team coaches. Her team has earned academic honors from the American Swimming Coaches Association in each of the past nine seasons, and have twice been ranked first nationally. Hinrichs, a native of Binghamton, N.Y., earned her bachelor's degree in physical education from Western Illinois in 1976 and her master's degree in 1984. Hinrichs and her husband, Rich, have two sons, Matthew and Mitchell. Head Coaching Coaching Resume
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