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Swarthmore College Athletics

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OFFICIAL ATHLETICS SITE OF  THE SWARTHMORE COLLEGE GARNET

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Swarthmore Athletics Quick Facts

All facilities


General

  • Founded: 1864
  • Enrollment: 1,702 (2025)
  • Nickname: Garnet
  • Colors: Garnet, White
  • Affiliation: NCAA Division III
  • Conference: Centennial
  • Centennial schools include: Bryn Mawr, Dickinson, Franklin & Marshall, Gettysburg, Haverford, Johns Hopkins, McDaniel, Muhlenberg, Ursinus, Washington College
  • President: Valerie Smith
  • Marian Ware Director of Athletics: Brad Koch
  • Associate Athletics Director/SWA: Val Gómez
  • Director of Athletic Communications: Matt Mizanin
  • Department phone: 610-328-8218
 

Athletic Information

  • 22 varsity teams
  • Seven chartered club teams
  • 16 full-time head coaches
  • 46 percent of the student body participates in varsity, club and intramural sports.
  • 26 percent participation rate in varsity intercollegiate athletics.
  • Swarthmore teams have been competing since the 1860s and have won eight national championships
  • Swarthmore is a member of a tri-college consortium with Haverford College and Bryn Mawr College in addition to a cross-registration agreement with the University of Pennsylvania.
  • Swarthmore's student-faculty ratio is 8:1. Since we are an undergraduate institution, graduate assistants do not teach classes.
 

Facilities

  • The Clothier Complex includes a softball field, baseball field and a turfed stadium. The stadium has a synthetic grass surface for lacrosse, soccer, and field hockey. The field is bordered by a 400-meter track, poured in 2003.
  • Athletic facilities include the Cunningham Complex, which has four fields, six tennis courts, team locker rooms and rest rooms. Rugby, ultimate frisbee and other club sports also use these facilities.
  • The Lamb-Miller Field House features five full length indoor basketball courts, four indoor tennis courts, four badminton courts, three volleyball courts, baseball and softball batting cage, and a 215-meter banked tartan track.
  • The Matchbox, which opened in 2014, is a multistory, 21,000-square-foot fitness, wellness, and theater space. Featuring ultramodern equipment, as well as areas for free weights and cardio training, the facility demonstrates Swarthmore's commitment not only to the wellness of the campus community, but to environmental sustainability.
  • The Tarble Pavilion features a 1,200-seat gymnasium with a white maple hardwood floor for basketball and volleyball. New bleachers and a sound system were added in 2006 and the court was refinished in 2022. Tarble also houses the sports medicine department, featuring a fully equipped athletic training room with four full-time trainers.
  • The Mullan Indoor Tennis and Fitness Center, which received an Outstanding Facility Award from the USTA in 2001, features three state-of-the-art tennis courts. The tennis courts were resurfaced in 2022. It was expanded to include additional space for athletic training as well as the indoor Costonis '92 Golf Center. 
  • The Ware Pool is a 10-lane by 10-lane, yards-by-meters competition pool with an electric time system.
 

Honors

  • Over 350 All-America awards have been received by Swarthmore student-athletes, including Katie Jo McMenamin, who won the 1500-meter run at the 2016 Division III Outdoor Track & Field Championships, and Adria Retter, the 2023 NCAA Division III National Champion in the discus.
  • Swarthmore has had more than 30 student-athletes named College Sports Communicators (formerly CoSIDA) Academic All-Americans, including 12 who have made the First Team. 
  • Of the College's 28 Rhodes Scholars since 1903, 18 have been student-athletes, including Caitlin Mullarkey in 2009.
  • Since the inception of the program in 2005, Swarthmore has had more than 250 student-athletes selected to the PhillySIDA Academic All-Area Team, including 37 Performers of the Year and two Male/Female Overall Performers of the Year.