While riding the bus to a high school field trip on March 7, Kale Lozano received a text message saying the college swim team he committed to no longer existed. The text came from another signed recruit who was visiting Cal Poly’s campus at the time.
Athletic Director Don Oberhelman had suddenly announced that Cal Poly cut the men’s and women’s swimming and diving programs, effective immediately.
CONTEXT: Cal Poly Swim and Dive athletes battle for reinstatement after team cut
“I kind of just sat there for a minute, confused,” Lozano said. “ I didn’t really know what to make of it because I had put so much into it, and just to get it cut like that was absurd.”
The current members of the team were left with a decision: finish out their education at Cal Poly on their existing scholarship or enter the transfer portal with the hopes of swimming at another school.
But for the high-schoolers who signed letters of intent to join for the 2025-26 season, there was less room to maneuver. Their scholarship agreements will be honored, but they only last through freshman year, according to Oberhelman. And though some of these swimmers initially had offers from other universities as well, the timing of the announcement meant some teams had filled up and the offers were no longer standing.
“I would still really love to swim in college, but we were cut so late that I didn’t really have a chance to find a place at a school I would want to be at, with the opportunities and academics and that I would want to swim at too,” said Jed Johnson, a senior at De La Salle High School in Concord, California.
Chloe Quarles, a senior at Coronado High School in Coronado, California, tried to reach back out to some of the schools she was in contact with before committing to Cal Poly, but due to full rosters, missed application deadlines, and late stages of review processes, many of those schools would no longer accept her.
Fortunately, the University of Nevada, Las Vegas had room, so she and one Cal Poly recruit on the men’s side are now committed there.
For Lozano, though, the challenges of the initial recruiting process led him to put all his effort into earning a spot on Cal Poly’s swim team, so he had no backup option when the team was cut.
“[Cal Poly] was really kind of my last shot for college swimming. I basically threw my eggs in that basket and just figured out I would have been safe.”
Kale Lozano
When announcing the cut in March, Cal Poly President Jeffrey Armstrong cited the “rapidly evolving and changing Division I landscape” as the reasoning. The athletic department was anticipating the result of the ongoing House vs. NCAA settlement, which would force schools to back pay student-athletes who competed between 2016-2024 and were shut out from name, image and likeness payments that current student-athletes are allowed to receive. Those back-payments would cost the school $550,000 a year for the next 12 years, Oberhelman said in a video from Cal Poly Athletics.
Meanwhile, the settlement stalled after a judge issued an order saying lawyers had to ensure student-athletes would not lose roster spots because of the settlement. On May 7, a revised proposal was submitted. If Judge Claudia Wilken does not approve these new terms, the case may go to trial.
Soon after Cal Poly’s announcement, there was a Zoom meeting in which Oberhelman, the athletic director, talked to the recruits and their parents about the reasons for cutting the team and what their next steps can be. However, the meeting turned hostile when parents felt their questions were not being answered, according to multiple recruits.
“[Oberhelman] said that he was sitting in a $10 million building and that swimming paid for none of it,” Quarles said. “It was pretty brutal.”
“The most confusing part of why the team got cut was kind of just like, why?” Lozano said.
“Why would the school decide to do that so late into the year? They just wrapped up their best finish in conference history. Why decide to cut the team then, after the team itself had given so much to the school and they had promised almost 20 kids a future just for them to strip it away?”
Armstrong initially informed the swim team they would need to raise $25 million in order to trigger permanent reinstatement, before extending the deadline and lowering the demanded amount twice. Now, the team has until June 15 to raise $15 million total, according to University Spokesperson Matt Lazier. As of May 30, they have raised $9 million, according to the Save Cal Poly Swim and Dive fundraising page.
“The amount they’re supposed to raise just seems a bit absurd for a non-revenue sport that doesn’t require a lot of funds in general,” said Taylor Spivey, who swam for Cal Poly in the 2010s and went on to win a silver medal in the mixed-team triathlon relay at the 2024 Olympic Games.
Spivey said, when she swam on the team, all of their meets were in California and they returned most of their gear at the end of each season, which is part of what left her and fellow alums confused about the demand. But, she is still holding out hope for reinstatement.
“This team was like a family to us. Even if I don’t know these underclassmen at all and I’ve never met them because I haven’t had the opportunity to go back, I still feel an obligation to them and I’ll do what I can.”
Taylor Spivey
“We still think there’s a chance we can get the team back, and we’re still just fighting for it,” Johnson said. His dad, Mark Johnson, who is also his high school coach, swam for Cal Poly in the 1980s.
“Obviously swimming is a huge part of our relationship and it’s been really special just having that connection between us as I’ve grown up,” the younger Johnson said. “He was really excited when I had committed.”
Quarles, whose brother swims for UC Berkeley, committed to Cal Poly without making an official visit to the school because she fell in love with the campus and nearby beaches while previously attending her brother’s swim meets.
Although Cal Poly was “an amazing option and pretty much my perfect school,” the lack of a swim team was a dealbreaker for Quarles, who recently switched her commitment to UNLV.
“They didn’t have the swim team and I’ve worked so hard for so long, and to get that opportunity taken away from me the way it was, was pretty devastating,” Quarles said. “Just because [swimming] is a big part of my life and I kind of couldn’t imagine myself not doing it.”
Given the team was not reinstated, Lozano plans to join the club team at Cal Poly.
“I love swimming, you know, it’s basically my life,” Lozano said. “I’ve dedicated so much time to it, and I still love to be in the water.”
Jed Johnson is still open to going to another university if it means he can keep swimming, but plans to attend Cal Poly in the fall, barring major changes.
For these three recruits, swimming at the collegiate level was their ultimate goal in the sport. When they committed to Cal Poly, they assumed that goal would be realized. For some, that remains to be seen.
“It was so exciting for me to be able to walk on to the swim team and then spend five years on the swim team as a part of this community,” Spivey said. “I just really hope they can experience it as well and that it’s not taken away from them.”
