STOCKTON, Calif. – The men's swim and dive teams from 1964-1968 will be honored as part of the Class of 2024 for the Pacific Athletics Hall of Fame. A special reception and dinner take place on Friday, Feb. 23 in the Janssen-Lagorio Gymnasium on the Pacific campus.
 
"It's an exciting feeling," said Donn Livoni, who was one of the swimmers during the era. "I feel much appreciated. I believe the group that is being inducted has earned this recognition. It's a long time coming."
 
Connor Sutton, the head coach of the Pacific men's swim and dive team for five years (1963-1968), is proud of his team's accomplishments during that run.
 
"It's neat to earn this recognition," said Sutton. "Some of those swimmers really didn't get that much recognition during their era, but I'm proud to say we had three national champions in the College Division."
 
A small group of student-athletes earned qualification to the NCAA College Division Swimming and Diving championships and placed in the national championship for five consecutive seasons. Three individuals, John Ostrom (100 fly), Phil Strick (50 free) and Jim Hayes (200 breast) won national championships during the five-year run. Nine individuals earned All-America honors multiple times. All five years, the Tigers finished in the Top 20 in the country.
 
"It was phenomenal," said Sutton of coaching Ostrom, Strick, Hayes and the rest of the team. "I remember all of them fondly. They worked hard and competed hard in the pool. It was really nice to coach them. We had a really good run those years."
 
It was an interesting case with Ostrom because he did not have a qualifying time from the regular season to make the NCAA championships. However, Sutton came up with an idea that spring boarded his best butterfly swimmer to the top.
 
"I made arrangements with the San Francisco State coach for John to swim in the 100-meter freestyle, only he was going to swim butterfly," said Sutton. "We did that, and we made sure there were six stopwatches on him. He won the meet and made the qualifying time for the nationals, which were held in Pennsylvania. It came down to the last chance to qualify and John did it."
 
As for travel, Sutton wasn't able to go with his team to the championships. As a result, he called upon the UC Santa Barbara coach to watch over his team. Because Ostrom won, it opened a door for the future of the Pacific men's swim and dive program.
 
"With John winning, it opened up more possibilities and avenues," said Sutton. "More Pacific teams had chances to go to the championships, and the future coaches would be able to go."
 
Livoni enjoyed his experience as part of the team for four years.


 
"We got to travel a lot and compete against other good swimmers from great schools," said Livoni. "The camaraderie amongst the team that we had at Pacific was great. It was a great group of guys."
 
Livoni has a scrapbook with photos of his teammates during his college days. Livoni remembers swimming with Strick for three years at Pacific, but also the duo swam together when they were 16 years old at the Arden Hills swim club.
 
"My mother kept pictures of me in a scrapbook," said Livoni. "There were team pictures which included a number of the people who were being recognized in the Pacific Athletics Hall of Fame."
 
Livoni still swims to this day when he finds time away from his 40-acre farm in Montana. Livoni is married to his wife, Wendy, and has two daughters, Adrienne (45) and Olivia (31).
 
Just like the rest of his teammates, Livoni is thankful for the friends and lessons that swimming has presented.
 
"The experience I've had through swimming, from the early friendships to college to masters' swimming, it's been a huge part of my life," said Livoni. "It has taught me so many things about sportsmanship, discipline, training and friendship. It's been a wonderful lifetime sport."
 
More information about the Hall of Fame ceremony can be found here.

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