Eight days into her tenure as a Cal Poly swim and dive captain, Jen Reiter walked into Fisher Science Building’s lecture hall fearing the worst.
All 57 teammates filed in just a few minutes before 7:30 a.m., awaiting Cal Poly Athletic Director Don Oberhelman.
Less than 24 hours earlier, the team was notified via email that their morning practice would be canceled. There was no warning or explanation.
On a normal morning, they would have been in the waters of the Anderson Aquatic Center. Students walking past the Olympic pools on their way to class would see the splashing water, the athletes’ fluttering arms, along with some brief glimpses of their green swim caps.
But on Friday, March 7, the water sat still.
Just 22 days earlier, the team had concluded a record-breaking season, culminating in two individual gold medals at the Big West Championships in Houston, Texas.
Both the men’s and women’s teams secured program records throughout the 2024-25 season. The men’s team also finished with its first undefeated conference season in program history and achieved the highest GPA among men’s sports at Cal Poly during the fall quarter.
Instead of their regular Friday morning practice, Reiter and her teammates’ worst fears were confirmed in Fisher Science Hall when Oberhelman announced the discontinuation of Cal Poly’s swim and dive program.
Just a few hours after waking up, their sport was gone.
“Thursday, I went to practice, and there was nothing wrong,” Reiter said. “We’re talking about the end-of-the-year banquet. We’re talking about what we’re going to do during spring quarter. Then Friday morning, I wake up and it’s just completely gone.”
Upon hearing the news, many athletes broke down in tears.
“Disbelief, shock, true sadness,” Reiter said. “I could see all the emotions across everyone’s faces.”
Now having to navigate uncharted waters with their lifelong sport taken away, the team turned towards launching all possible fundraising avenues and rallying the community in order to combat the growing financial changes faced by Cal Poly.
Financial justifications from the university
The announcement was made public an hour after the meeting in a schoolwide budget email, titled “Follow-Up on Budget and Organizational Changes.”
In the email, Cal Poly President Jeffrey Armstrong pointed to “mounting NCAA legal issues” and a “shrinking state budget,” which has created “unavoidable financial realities.”
One of those legal issues is the looming House v. NCAA settlement.
The class-action lawsuit, which was initially filed in 2020 against the NCAA, seeks $2.8 billion in name, image and likeness damages along with an injunction to lift restrictions on revenue sharing with student-athletes.
According to an FAQ released by the university on March 7, Cal Poly is estimated to lose nearly $500,000 per year in damages due to the settlement.
The settlement is close to approval after a hearing on Monday in front of Judge Claudia Wilken in Oakland. According to Ross Dellenger of Yahoo Sports, Wilken told members of the case that she wants to see a gradual phase-in of roster limits and alter language regarding binding future athletes to the settlement.
However, these roster limits are separate than budgetary issues, which the university cited as cause for discontinuing the swim and dive team.
If approved, the NCAA and every Division I conference will begin back-pay compensation for student-athletes from 2016-2021, and the new revenue-sharing agreement will go into place ahead of the 2025-2026 season.
Cal Poly’s decision represents a broader trend with the settlement and CSU budget cuts around the corner.
This year, California schools such as San Francisco State, Sonoma State, and Loyola Marymount have each made significant cuts. Sonoma State fully discontinued its athletics department in January, while Loyola Marymount cut six nonrevenue sports in September and directly cited the House vs. NCAA settlement.
In the FAQ, Cal Poly states they currently have “no plans to discontinue any other athletic programs.”
Given the financial changes across the NCAA landscape, the coaching staff fears for the future of other nonrevenue sports across the country.
“It’s disheartening to think nonrevenue sports always have that looming over them, that they could go at any time,” co-interim head coach Traci Granger said. “Nonrevenue sports are doing it for the fun and the joy of representing their schools.”
Additionally, the nearly 8% budget cut for the Cal State system funding is significantly impacting Cal Poly, as they are set to face a $24.2 million reduction in state funding for the 2025-26 fiscal year.
Originally, according to the university’s FAQ, fundraising was dismissed as “not a viable solution for the long-term.”
According to swimmers present in a meeting with President Armstrong on March 19, that stance was reversed when he informed the team that $25 million would be required to reinstate the program. Cal Poly spokesperson Matt Lazier later confirmed this figure.
The university declined to comment on why $25 million was the number set and directed further questions to the FAQ.
Lazier explained that the fundraising is split into two parts. They have until April 15 to raise $10 million, and if that mark is reached, the university will grant them 60 days to raise the next $15 million.
With the team still processing their emotions, they have turned to raising $10 million in less than a week’s time.
“We’re going to prove we can save this team,” junior men’s captain Alex Seybold said. “This group of people has more grit than anybody I know, and we’re not going to stop until we’ve done everything we can.”
Athletes turn their heartbreak into action
Given 28 days to raise $10 million, the athletes quickly launched a GoFundMe and a Change.org petition.
As of April 7, the GoFundMe has raised over $74,000, and the petition is close to 20,000 signatures.
According to an Instagram page dedicated toward saving the team, they’ve raised $2.1 million in total as of March 21. Almost half is from an anonymous donor who pledged $1 million.
The $2.1 million includes all fundraising streams, previous swim and dive endowments and the anonymous donation.
The program has garnered attention from the broader swim community, with support from Olympic gold medalists Missy Franklin, Ryan Murphy and Abbey Weitzel – none of whom attended Cal Poly.
Although the number set by the university is daunting, it’s not the first financial battle the team has faced. According to Seybold, the swim and dive team was “underfunded” at the beginning of the year and was asked to raise $80,000 to help cover their operating budget of $200,000 for the 2024-25 season.
In just two nights of fundraising, they raised $85,000, Reiter said. The university referred to the FAQ on why the $80,000 was needed, even though that number is not mentioned there.
Reiter also said they were not told at any point during the season that more money beyond the $85,000 was needed.
What were the costs of the Swim and Dive team?
The swim and dive program’s game-day operating expenses were over $246,000 in the 2022-23 season, according to Equity in Athletics Data Analysis. The men’s expenses were over $125,000, while the women’s were just under $121,000.
Looking at the Big West Conference, Cal Poly’s expenses were in line with the other programs, except for Hawaii, which spent significantly more. These numbers exclude scholarships and salaries.
Glenn Perry, who graduated from Cal Poly in 1985 and was inducted into the Cal Poly Athletics Hall of Fame for swimming in 2013, states a “lack of leadership from the athletic department” is the main problem at hand with poor funding.
He explained the $80,000 at the beginning of the season was the only time the alumni and donors were given a set amount by the athletic department to raise for Cal Poly swimming and diving. According to Perry, the alumni and donors were never told the team was in impending trouble.
“What has the athletic department done to motivate alumni and donors to raise funds over the last 10 to 15 years?” Perry said.
In the FAQ, Athletics stated the opposite, claiming they have been working to “raise private funds to support swimming and diving for many years.”
A program accustomed to change
Uncertainty is nothing new to this team, which has experienced changes in coaching, conferences and budgets over the last few years.
It’s the team’s second consecutive season with interim head coaches, as former head coach Phil Yoshida was placed on indefinite leave following allegations of verbal and emotional abuse and retaliation in September 2023.
This past season marked their return to the Big West Conference after leaving it for the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation in 2011.
Despite the constant changes, the 2024-25 season was one of the strongest in Cal Poly Swim and Dive’s history.
“We were able to turn a season with a financial issue at the beginning into the best season in school history,” Seybold said.
Many of the athletes were preparing to swim and dive for the rest of their collegiate careers as a Mustang. According to the FAQ, currently enrolled athletes can either stay on scholarship through the rest of their time at Cal Poly or enter the transfer portal.
According to the current swimmers, the high school recruits committed to Cal Poly will not have their offers honored.
Junior men’s swimmer Drew Huston, one of the two gold medalists, was the first player to transfer. He announced his decision via Instagram on March 27 that he’d be going to USC.
At the Big West Championships, Huston and junior men’s swimmer Evan Yoo won conference titles, Huston winning in the 200-yard backstroke and Yoo in the 200-yard breaststroke.
Yoo transferred to Cal Poly from Army for his junior year before the season and, in just one year, set three individual program records and was a part of two relay program records.
Nobody knew the conference championships would be their final meet wearing the green and gold.
“They did not have the opportunity to know their last swim would be in Houston, and it will scar many of them for the rest of their life,” Perry said.
As a former student-athlete, Perry emphasized the effort required to excel both athletically and academically.
“You have no idea the pain they go through or the sacrifices they make to get the highest GPA of any sports program on campus,” Perry said. “They perform brilliantly in the classroom, and they perform brilliantly in the pool.”
Alongside recording the highest GPA out of all men’s sports during the fall quarter, the men’s team set eight new program records over the season.
The women’s team also added program records in the 200-yard medley relay and 400-yard freestyle relay.
Other team accolades included Big West Freshman of the Year for Sam Seybold, Alex’s brother. Interim co-head coach Kim Carlson won Big West Coach of the Year as well.
Their resounding success this season added to the shock felt when the announcement was made.
“The emotion in that room was palpable,” Seybold said. “A lot of us were crying.”
There hadn’t been any official word from their coaches or the athletics department, but the signs, including the canceled practice and their coaches similarly being left without an explanation, pointed toward the end of the team.
“They had no warning,” Granger said. “They were very disheartened. After such a great season, I don’t think they could believe it was happening.”
Granger has been a part of the Cal Poly swim community since 1978 and was inducted into the Cal Poly Athletics Hall of Fame in the fall of 2024.
She and her counterpart Carlson’s contracts will not be renewed, according to the FAQ. They were set to end in April.
Full-time diving coach Laurel Abernethy will not return either. All three are now unlisted on the swim and dive roster on GoPoly.
Even though the athletes in the program have lost their sport and access to the Anderson Aquatic Center and weightlifting facilities, they have not lost the bonds created through swimming.
“We’re all a family because of swimming,” senior women’s swimmer Summer Cheng said. “Just seeing all your friends and teammates in the morning is something special that not many people get to experience, and it’s a privilege to experience it here at Cal Poly.”
Unable to swim in their own pool, the team has turned to the Cal Poly Recreation Center’s lap pool along with local club pools offering them access. According to Seybold, many of the athletes are still training for national, international and pro meets in the upcoming months.
Despite the constant uncertainty, Perry insists the student-athletes and community should “not lose hope.” The team is embodying the message loud and clear as they attempt to raise the $10 million by April 15.
“In the end, the question is, What do you want your legacy to be?” Perry said. “I think everybody would love to have a legacy that collectively came together and saved Cal Poly swimming.”