Bryant University Men's Swimming

Cameron has brought the swimming and diving program to prominence in not only the Northeast Conference but the Northeast region. In 2015-16, Cameron once again oversaw two programs that put together outstanding seasons. Led by an a strong senior class, an infusion of youth and a talented diving team, the women's team finished third at the NEC Championships. The highlight was Kelci Abernethy, who became the first-ever NEC Diver of the Year from Bryant. On the men's side, the Bulldogs enjoyed a historic performance at the MAAC Championships, finishing a program-best third with a program-record 511 points. In addition, Bryant broke 12 school records and took home 11 medals over the course of the weekend.  Cameron also had the pleasure of coaching an Olympian in Ben Schulte. The native of Guam qualified for the 2016 Rio Olympics, swimming the 100 breast. It was his second appearance in the Olympics, having swam the open water swim in London. Cameron's 10th season at the helm of the Bulldogs was a successful one in 2014-15. She led both the men's and women's teams to outstanding performances at the Northeast Conference Championships and the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Championships. The biggest highlight of the season was the emergence of freshman Ben Schulte. The native of Guam immediately became one of the best swimmers in program history, capping his rookie season by earning MAAC Swimmer of the Meet honors, a first for Bryant swimming and diving. In addition, the Bulldogs sent three swimmers to the AT&T U.S. Winter Nationals. In 2013-14, the Bulldogs once again made great strides. On the women's side, the Black and Gold made history with a second place finish at the NEC Championships, the highest in program history. The women earned 10 medals over the course of the meet. The men also excelled, finishing fourth at the MAAC Championships. Graham Beck was the highlight of the meet, setting three school records and becoming the second Bulldog to win a gold medal at the championships. He led the Black and Gold to five medals on the weekend.  Bryant's first official season as a full DI team was another outstanding one for Cameron's Bulldogs. In addition to an outstanding year in the pool, the Bulldogs also added a diving program for the first time in school history. The women's team had a great showing at the NEC championships as they scored a record 669.5 points, finishing third. The meet was highlighted Casey Ostrander's fourth-straight NEC Swimmer of the Year honor. The senior won the 200 back and then helped the 400 free relay team set another conference record in the final event of the championships. In all, Cameron saw 11 swimmers earn All-NEC honors, including senior Molly Smith in the 200 breast and Taylor DeBever in the 200 free. Freshman Lauren Doerrman and Elisabeth Schauer both earned second team honors. Bryant's 200 free relay team of Ostrander, DeBever, Kaitlin Buckley and Dana Yu also earned a gold medal with a conference record time of 1:34.22. The Bulldogs went 8-4 in dual meet competition on the year, including the program's first-ever victory over Maine.  On the men's side, Cameron guided her program into their first season in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC). The Bulldogs passed with flying colors, finishing fifth out of ten teams. In what has become a trend for the program, the Bulldogs obliterated the record books, setting 13 new top times. Graduate student Alex Kosenski wrapped up his career with an outstanding meet, winning a gold medal in the 200 free. He went on to finish second in the 100 and fifth in the 50. Bryant's 400 free relay team of Josh Bjornberg, Nicholas Karadimas, John Lawson and Kosenski capped the meet with a school-record time of 3:04.90 and a second-place finish. Over the course of the meet, the Bulldogs broke every single relay record for the second-straight year. Freshman Brendan Miller-Radest also broke a four-year old school record, finishing the 1000 with a school-record time of 9:51.73. On the year, the Bulldogs went 5-3 in dual meet competition, including a victory over Maine. In 2007-08, Bryants final DII season, Cameron coached her men's team to a 10-1 record, going 3-0 in conference, while leading her women's side to an undefeated 12-0 record. She also saw two swimmers, Tom Ferrigno and Jessica Looney, named Swimmer of the Meet at the 2008 New England Championships. Both teams finished fourth at the NE-10 Conference championships. But with a new challenge at hand in 2008-09, the Bryant swimmers stepped eagerly into a new era of Bulldog Athletics and enjoyed immediate success under Camerons tutelage. The 2009-10 season saw the young programs swim to its most successful season to date, as mens and womens swimmers set an impressive 39 school and pool records and sent a strong contingent of both men and women to the ECAC Championships in Pittsburgh, Pa. The Bulldogs returned from the ECACs with 10 top-10 finishes on the weekend, setting 11 new school records in the process. The women scored 119 points to finish 12th at the 2010 ECACs, up nine positions and 101 points from their 2009 place. The men moved up the ladder as well, also placing 12th after a 15th-place finish last season. The year also saw the women earn six NEC All-Conference selections and saw freshman Casey Ostrander earn both Co-Swimmer of the Year and Co-Rookie of the Year honors. The Bryant women finished fourth at the 2010 NEC Championships. That success carried over to the next season, where Coach Cameron continued to build the foundation of a program that will be as competitive as any other in the area once the Bulldogs become a full-time Division I team in 2012-13.  During the 2011-12 campaign, both the men's and women's teams captured six dual meet victories, and saw impressive efforts at the URI Invitational.  But neither Division I nor Bryant's future home in the Northeast Conference are unfamiliar to Cameron, who came to Smithfield, R.I. from current NEC-member Wagner College, where she served as head women's swim coach from 1997-2004. In her eight seasons at Wagner, Cameron saw eight individual conference champions and coached a league-winning relay team. She led her squad to a second-place conference finish in 2002 and 2003 and a third-place finish in 2005. But it was her 2003 Coach of the Year accolade that was the real testament to her accomplishments. Cameron was the first coach in the history of Wagners Division I swimming program to handle all coaching and administrative duties, as well as fundraising and budgeting. In addition to her duties with the women's swim team, she also served as the Wagner College Aquatics Director, overseeing all scheduling and staffing, and coached the women's water polo team from 2001-03, serving as water polo administrator during the 2003-04 season. In 2004, Bryant University announced the addition of women's intercollegiate swimming and the reinstatement of men's intercollegiate swimming as varsity programs, effective in the fall of 2005. The addition of the programs brought the total number of Bulldog varsity sports offered to 22. A native of Brooklyn, N.Y., Cameron is a 1996 graduate of Syracuse University's School of Management, earning her Masters in Education from Wagner in 2001.

Cummiskey begins his fourth year as an assistant coach with the Bryant University swimming and diving program in 2016-17. Cummiskey has helped the Bulldogs excel during championship season in each of his first three years in Smithfield. Under Cummiskey's tutelage, the men's swimming and diving team had a historic performance at the MAAC Championships, finishing a program-best third. The Bulldogs set 12 school records and brought home 11 medals over the course of the weekend. Cummiskey also coached Ben Schulte who went on to compete for Guam in the 2016 Rio Olympics. In 2014-15, he watched as freshman Ben Schulte set four individual school records and become the first male swimmer in program history to earn MAAC Swimmer of the Meet honors. Cummiskey helped the Bulldog men finish sixth and the Bulldog women finish third. In his first season, both the men and the women enjoyed historic success at the championships. The women posted 643.5 points and finished second at the NEC Championships, while the men scored 355 points and finished fourth at the MAAC Championships. The women won 10 medals and the men took home five. A 2011 graduate of Springfield College, Cummiskey brings a wealth of coaching experience to a Bulldogs program that is becoming one of the top teams in New England. He worked as an assistant at Wheaton College last year but has extensive experience with club swimming. Cummiskey is currently the head coach of the Bulldog Aquatics Club out of Smithfield, and worked for two years as the Aquatics Director and head swim coach at the Cumberland-Lincoln Boys and Girls Club. He handled all staff scheduling, pool maintenance, swim lessons and team practices. Cummiskey has also worked as lifeguard with Narragansett Surf Rescue and at the Springfield College Natatorium. While at Springfield, Cummiskey was a four-year member of the Pride swimming program. He was also an all-state swimmer at Bishop Hendricken High School. Cummiskey was a member of the 200 medley and free relay teams and also earned all-state honors in the 500 free, 200 free and 100 back. Cummiskey earned a degree in Movement and Sports Studies and a minor in athletic coaching from Springfield. He is also a certified water safety instructor and certified in CPR/AED, first aid, lifeguarding ASCA Level 1, principals of YMCA Swimming and Diving and all USS certifications. Cummiskey is a native of Providence, R.I. 

LoCurto joined Bryant University in January of 2012, where he works as the school's . He then was hired by head swimming coach Katie Cameron to begin the first diving program at Bryant. After LoCurtos hiring, the Bulldogs fielded their first diver and became Bryant Swimming and Diving. In just a couple of seasons with the Bulldog divers, LoCurto has already started to turn the diving program into one of the best in the area. The 2015-16 season was a historic one for the Black and Gold as LoCurto was named the Northeast Conference Diving Coach of the Year after helping Kelci Abernethy to NEC Diver of the Year honors. Under LoCurto, Abernethy won the 1 and 3 meter diving titles and set a conference record in the 1 meter. Bryant finished 1,2,7,9 in the 3 meter and 1,4,5,6 in the 1 meter. Abernethy also earned NEC Diver of the Week honors five times during the year.  In 2013-14, the Bulldog divers scored enough points to help the swimming and diving team earn second place at the Northeast Conference Championships. The 2012-13 season resulted in a similar story, when the team took third at the NECs. The mens team has been experiencing similar success. In 2015-16, LoCurto brought Kevin Sullivan into the program and watched him excel in his first season with the Black and Gold. Sullivan won the 1 meter dive at two events and won the 3 meter dive once. He had an excellent performance at the WPI Invitational, finishing with 382.30 points on the 1 meter (11 dives) and 377.85 points on the 3 meter (11 dives).  The 2014-15 season proved to be an exciting one, where the mens swimming and diving team won the Harold Anderson Invitational. This was accomplished not only by the talented swimmers, but also with the points earned by the divers, placing second, third, and eighth on 3-meter, and second, fourth and 10th on 1-meter. During the previous 2013-14 season, Bryants male divers took first place on 1-meter and second place on 3-meter during the Harold Anderson Invitational. Conference title on 1 and 3 Meter Conference record on 1 meter NEC Diver of the Meet NEC Coach of the year The ladies place 1,4,5,6 on 1 Meter The ladies placed 1,2,7,9 on 3 Meter Earned NEC Diver of the Week 5 times In 2015-16, the Bulldogs shattered the school records in both dives, set 21 lifetime highs scores, earned 18 first-place finishes, 17 second-place finishes and 10 third-place finishes. Bryant's divers nearly doubled their point production from the previous season, contributing 728 points.  In 2014-15, the Bulldog divers broke the school record three times, earned 15 first-place finishes, 18 second-place finishes and nine third-place finishes. They contributed 440 points to the Bulldogs throughout the season.  LoCurto is a veteran in the world of diving. A native New Yorker from Rockland County and Section 9, LoCurto was county champ and Section 9 champ back in the late 70s and early 80s. He was a camper at Cornell University and was an AAU diver for New Trends Diving Club in New Rochelle, N.Y. He had several other great finishes throughout his high school career in the AAU league, Empire State Games and YMCA age group nationals. After high school, he went on to college at Clarion University of Pennsylvania, where he earned a double major in both Finance and Business Computers & Information Systems. During his collegiate diving career, he became a four-time NCAA Division II All-American, placing fourth twice on 3-meter and placing fifth twice on 1-meter. He also qualified for and competed in the NCAA Division I Nationals.  As a collegiate diver, he coached diving camps at both Clarion University and Cornell University. Over the years, LoCurto assisted many local coaches and divers. Beginning in 2010, he coached Roger Williams University, leading its divers to the program's best-ever performance at the NEISDA Championships.   In the summer of 2014, LoCurto was both a coach and student at RipFest diving camp in Indiana. There, he was able to coach with and learn from several elite divers and instructors. He continued to hone his coaching skills by working with and learning from the great coaches at Boston Area Diving. LoCurto also spent time coaching with the diving staff at Brown Universitys diving camp.