University of the Pacific

The 1973 and 1974 Pacific Men’s Swimming teams are being honored for winning the first two conference championships in school history and finishing in the top 20 at the NCAA Championships in consecutive years.

The Tigers’ 1973 squad rolled through the dual meet portion of their schedule, finishing the year with a perfect 11-0 mark in dual meets. Wins over California, UC Davis and UC Santa Barbara highlighted the Tigers’ dual meet season. Pacific would go on to win its first-ever Pacific Coast Athletic Association championship, downing UC Santa Barbara by more than 50 points. Joe Dietrich won both the 50 Free and 100 Free while Rick Reeder claimed the 200 Free while the Tigers won both the 400 Free and 800 Free Relays. Pacific finished the season placing 18th out of 96 schools at the NCAA Championships.

Pacific claimed its second consecutive PCAA Championship in 1974 after finishing its dual meet season with a record of 10-1. The Tigers won that year’s conference title by nearly 250 points over two-time champion Long Beach State. Pacific claimed wins in nine races as Dietrich and Reeder kept their event crowns from the previous season. The Tigers also retained their event titles in the 400 Free and 800 Free Relays. At the 1974 NCAA Championships, Pacific improved two spots over the previous year as they came in 16th place.

The 1973 and 1974 swim teams set a number of school records that stood well into the 1980’s while the two squads combined for a total of 16 conference titles. The head coach of both teams, Bill Rose, was inducted into the Pacific Athletic Hall of Fame in 1989 while All-Americans Reeder,  Dietrich and Craig Schwartz were inducted in 1989, 1995 and 2002, respectively.