Dordt University in Iowa Will Add Men’s and Women’s Swimming in Fall 2024

By Braden Keith on SwimSwam

Dordt University, a private university located in Sioux Center, Iowa, will add men’s and women’s swimming programs in the coming years. The school competes at the NAIA level, and is hoping to hire a coach by fall 2023 to begin recruiting for its first competitions in the 2024-25 school year.

“There is a desire (for us to) offer the sport by many of our constituents—they want the opportunity to swim collegiately and they fit well with the mission of the university,” Mike Byer, the school’s Director of Athletic Communications said. “We have a tremendous facility near campus and the popularity of the sport in our community continues to grow.”

That facility is the Siouxnami Water Park and adjacent All Seasons Center, which feature water slides, zip lines, a lazy river – and 6-lane lap pools both outdoors and indoors (the indoor pool is 25 yards long).

Byer’s reasons for adding a swim team mirrors that of many schools that have been part of a rapid growth of the sport at the smaller-college level in recent years: the ability to attract students and increase enrollment.

The school, founded in 1955 as the Midwest Christian Junior College, became Dordt College in 1956 and Dordt University in 2019. The school has a total enrollment of 1,858, including 1,483 full-time undergraduates. Tuition & Fees for next academic year are $35,960, and the school is committed to the “Reformed Christian” perspective, which is the umbrella term for Christianity that grew out of the Protestant Reformation of the 1500s, including prominently, but not limited to, Calvinism.

The men’s and women’s swimming programs will be the school’s 19th and 20th intercollegiate varsity sports. The school competes primarily in the Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC), and in 2022 won an NAIA National Championship in men’s cross country.

The GPAC doesn’t sponsor swimming, but includes a number of schools with swimming programs – including nearby Morningside University in Sioux City. The conference’s other swimming members compete in the KCAC. That includes University of Jamestown, Midland University, Morningside, and College of Saint Mary.

SwimSwam: Dordt University in Iowa Will Add Men’s and Women’s Swimming in Fall 2024