Ithaca Hires Mike Blakely-Armitage as Swimming and Diving Head Coach<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Ithaca College on Friday announced the hiring of alum Mike Blakely-Armitage as the program\u2019s new head coach. He replaces his former mentor\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\r\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/ithaca-hires-mike-blakely-armitage-as-swimming-and-diving-head-coach\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ithaca Hires Mike Blakely-Armitage as Swimming and Diving Head Coach\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Ithaca College on Friday announced the hiring of alum Mike Blakely-Armitage as the program\u2019s new head coach. 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{"id":532010,"date":"2023-07-07T16:29:34","date_gmt":"2023-07-07T23:29:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=532010"},"modified":"2023-07-07T16:29:34","modified_gmt":"2023-07-07T23:29:34","slug":"ithaca-hires-mike-blakely-armitage-as-swimming-and-diving-head-coach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/ithaca-hires-mike-blakely-armitage-as-swimming-and-diving-head-coach\/","title":{"rendered":"Ithaca Hires Mike Blakely-Armitage as Swimming and Diving Head Coach"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ithaca Hires Mike Blakely-Armitage as Swimming and Diving Head Coach<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ithaca College on Friday announced the hiring of alum Mike Blakely-Armitage<\/strong> as the program\u2019s new head coach. He replaces his former mentor, Kevin Markwardt<\/strong>, who retired in May<\/a> after 42 years coaching the Ithaca swimmind squads.<\/p>\n

Blakely-Armitage swam for and worked with Markwardt. He graduated from Ithaca in 2000 and was in the midst of his second stint as an associate head coach on Markwardt\u2019s staff.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to thank Susan Bassett and the entire search committee for entrusting me with the responsibility of guiding our current and future Bombers towards academic and athletic excellence,\u201d Blakely-Armitage said in a university statement<\/a>.\u00a0\u201dTheir commitment to excellence while supporting a robust student-athlete experience was evident throughout the entire search process.\u201d<\/p>\n

With Markwardt, Blakely-Armitage helped lead the Ithaca women to four straight Liberty League Championships. The men\u2019s team was the runner-up in the conference last year, and the Bombers qualified 14 swimmers for the 2023 NCAA Division III Championships. They garnered seven All-American honors.<\/p>\n

Blakely-Armitage coached as his alma mater shortly after graduating. He then spent 10 years at Ithaca High School, leading the boys team from 2009-19 and the girls from 2015-19. He didn\u2019t lose a boys dual meet in that time, the Little Red going 72-0, winning eight Section IV titles, breaking three state records and garnering 17 All-American honors. His swimmers won four individual and three relay state titles. The girls team went 27-1 in his fourth seasons, three times winning Section IV.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is with great pleasure, confidence and Bomber pride that I announce the promotion of Mike Blakely-Armitage \u201800, as our next head men\u2019s and women\u2019s swimming and diving coach,\u201d athletic director Susan Bassett<\/strong> said. \u201cSince rejoining our staff in 2019, Mike has demonstrated exceptional effectiveness in recruiting and coaching.\u00a0 Through the search process, Coach Blakely-Armitage painted a vision for the future of the program that aligns with the vision and mission of Ithaca College Athletics\u2019 aspiration to consistently compete at a high level while providing a meaningful educational experience for our students. I look forward to seeing how Coach Blakely-Armitage will build on our tradition of success in swimming and diving.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"