With the conclusion of the 2025 Atlantic 10 championships, the Massachusetts swimming and diving teams wrapped up its time in the A-10. Both teams will be moving to the Mid-American Conference for the 2025-26 season. The Minutewomen finished seventh while the Minutemen finished sixth at their final championship meets as A-10 members.
The final meet marked the end of successful runs in the A-10 that spanned decades for both the men’s and women’s swim and dive programs. The UMass men first joined the conference in the 1984-85 season and competed in its first conference championship meet in February 1985 under then-head coach Russ Yarworth, finishing fourth at the meet. Now, 40 years later, the Minutemen leave the conference as 16-time A-10 champions.
Yarworth was the leader of every single one of those 16 A-10 titles. The 1978 UMass grad was a legendary UMass men’s swim and dive head coach who led the program from 1979 until his retirement in 2020, an unprecedented 41-year run. His teams dominated the A-10 and left the Minutemen with the record for most A-10 men’s swim and dive championships. The record will likely stand for years after UMass’s departure.
Between 1996 and 2016, Yarworth led UMass to an incredible 16 titles in 20 years, including six straight between 2007 and 2012. The 2022 UMass Hall of Fame inductee was also a 14-time A-10 Coach of the Year, another record held by the Minutemen.
Through the UMass men’s team’s 40 years in the conference, it only had two head coaches during that span. Those two were Yarworth, and his successor, current head coach Sean Clark, who took over the head coaching reins in 2020.
Clark, a UMass alum and former swimmer under Yarworth, is also intertwined with the Minutemen’s history in the A-10. Leading the team for the final five seasons of UMass’ A-10 membership, Clark was also a part of the team’s championship-laden history prior to becoming a head coach. The 1993 UMass graduate, Clark, was an assistant coach on teams that won five of the program’s 16 conference titles.
With 16 A-10 titles, many of the best swimmers and divers in program history overlapped with the men’s program’s time in the conference. On five occasions, a Minuteman swimmer was named as the conference’s Most Outstanding Performer at the championships: Chris Arsenault in 2000, Billy Brown in 2001, Ryan Zaucha in 2003, Evan Swisher in 2007 and Alessandro Bomprezzi in 2015.
One of the greatest swimmers in Minutemen A-10 and program history was Brown, one of only six members of the men’s swim and dive team to be inducted into the UMass athletics Hall of Fame. The Fullerton, California native was inducted into the university’s athletics Hall of Fame in 2014 and dominated the A-10 while swimming at UMass.
Brown’s first-place finishes in the 200 breaststroke, 400 individual medley and second in the 100 breaststroke at the 2001 A-10 championships earned him the aforementioned 2001 MOP.
The women’s swim and dive team at UMass also had a successful run in the A-10, spanning 30 years. The A-10 didn’t begin sponsoring women’s swim and dive until the 1992-93 season. The Minutewomen began participating during the 1994-95 season and competed in their first A-10 championship in February 1995 under head coach Bob Newcomb.
Newcomb, like his men’s counterpart in Yarworth, coached the UMass women’s team for decades. The 1980 Washington and Lee University graduate coached the program from 1984 until his retirement in 2020, when Clark took over coaching duties from him as well. Current head coach Maiya Otsuka became the head coach for the 2024-25 season.
Under Newcomb’s leadership, the Minutewomen won their first and only A-10 championship in 2001. The 2001 team was captained by Becky Hunnewell, Sarah Newell and Shannon Rowell. Arguably the greatest swimmer in program history, Hunnewell is the only UMass women’s swimmer to be named the MOP at a conference championship. Hunnewell was named the MOP at both the 2001 and 2002 championships.
The Sandwich, Massachusetts native was the A-10 champion in the 200 back and 100 free at the 2001 championship and champion in the 100 back and 200 back at the 2002 championship.
Both programs were dominant over the years in the diving events. The Minutewomen had divers win the conference’s Most Outstanding Diver award 16 times. Among these winners, three divers did it multiple times: Karen Upperco (2006-2009), Michaela Butler (2012-2014) and Emma Roush (2016-2018). The Minutemen have had a diver capture the MOD award nine times, with Jason Cook claiming the award three consecutive times from 2009 to 2011.
Fittingly, UMass wrapped up its time in the conference with Andrew Bell capturing his second straight MOD award and coach Missy Bernosky winning the Diving Coach of the Year award in the Minutemen’s final A-10 meet in February.
As the men’s and women’s swim and dive programs enter a new chapter in program history in the MAC next year, both teams can certainly look up at the championship banners hanging above Joseph R. Rogers, Jr. pool and remember the successful years they had in the A-10.
Marco Lopez can be reached at [email protected].
