PITMAN—The New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC) announced on March 30 that the United States Merchant Marine Academy will join the conference as affiliate members in the sports of women’s and men’s swimming and diving, beginning in the 2023-24 academic year. With the addition, the NJAC will feature 10 women’s swimming and diving programs and nine men’s swimming and diving programs, including full-member programs Kean University (women only), Montclair State University, Ramapo College, Rowan University, The College of New Jersey, and William Paterson University and recently welcomed affiliate members Roger Williams University, Salisbury University, and the University of Mary Washington.
 
The NJAC will also host its own swimming and diving championship meet for the first time in conference history beginning in 2023-24. Championship meet dates and location will be announced at a later time.
 
“We are excited to welcome an outstanding USMMA swimming & diving program to the conference,” said NJAC Commissioner Terry Small. “We look forward to staging a very competitive championship meet and this terrific program along with our three other recently named affiliate programs will certainly help us enhance the competition opportunity for all of our swimming & diving student-athletes.”
 
“We are excited to join and continue our competitive relationship with the NJAC,” Commander Sean Tedesco, Head Coach of the USMMA program, said. “The Mariners have been competing against the NJAC schools for over 40 years and we are thrilled to join it, which will be one of the best DIII swimming and diving conferences in the country.”
 
“We want to thank Commissioner Terry Small and the entire NJAC for the opportunity have our men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams compete as an affiliate member,” Director of Physical Education & Athletics Kristofer Schnatz said. “We are looking forward to the upcoming 23-24 season!”
 
USMMA brings a history of recent success to the NJAC. The Mariner men sent four swimmers and one diver to the NCAA Championships this season, marking the fourth consecutive year that the program had national qualifiers. The men’s program went 11-0 in dual meets and finished second in the Metropolitan Conference, while the women’s team went 10-3 overall and finished with a program-best third place finish at Mets with nine Academy records broken during championship weekend. Both the men’s and women’s teams went undefeated in Skyline Conference dual meet action in 2022-23 as well.