June 3, 2002

Anne Marie Stricklin, former All-America swimmer at South Carolina and most recently head men’s and women’s swimming coach at Northern Illinois University, has joined the University of Notre Dame women’s swimming and diving program as an assistant coach on Bailey Weather’s staff for the 2002-03 season.

“Anne Marie was a great athlete and has done a great job as both an assistant and head coach,” Weathers says.

“She will add a lot to our program and really completes our staff with myself, (diving coach) Caiming (Xie) and Josh (Skube).”

Stricklin had an outstanding swimming career at the University of South Carolina, as she earned All-America honors in the 400 medley relay and the 100 butterfly in 1992. In that same season, she qualified for the Olympic Trials in the 50-meter freestyle and was ranked among the top 25 in the nation for that event. Stricklin also was world ranked in the 50 freestyle and 100 butterfly during the 1992 season and set nine South Carolina top performance times during her career. During her prep career, in which she was a five-time high school All-American, she was featured in Sports Illustrated “Faces in the Crowd” (Dec. 7, 1987).

Stricklin graduated from South Carolina in 1993 with a business administration degree and began her coaching career as the junior varsity swimming coach and graduate assistant swimming coach for the varsity team at Auburn University in 1994. She went on to work as the Sports Information Supervisor at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996 before moving to Georgia Southern University to become the director of swimming and head women’s swimming coach in August of 1996. During her stay at Georgia Southern, Stricklin earned a master’s degree in sport management (1999).

Most recently, Stricklin was the head men’s and women’s swimming coach at Northern Illinois University from 1999-2002, where she earned the Mid-American Conference men’s swimming coach of the year award in 2001. She helped turn the men’s team around from a 1-11 dual meet record in 2000 to an impressive 12-3 in 2001 and a second-place finish in the conference.

During the past three seasons, the men’s and women’s teams improved dramatically at NIU, setting 25 school records, winning five MAC conference titles, posting five NCAA “B” cuts and three zone diving qualifying scores while five student-athletes were named to the all-conference team.

Stricklin’s teams have excelled both in and out of the pool during her career. The Northern Illinois women’s team earned College Swimming Coaches Association all-academic team honors from 1999-2001, the NIU men’s team earned that recognition in 2000 and her Georgia Southern women’s team was named an all-academic team from 1996-99.