Cornell University Women's Swimming

Gallagher returned to Ithaca in May of 2013 to serve as assistant coach and the program's recruiting coordinator under head coach Joe Lucia. The 2010 and 2012 Northeast Conference Coach of the Year guided the Red Flash women's programs to four consecutive conference titles (2010, 2011, 2012, 2013). He was promoted Cornell's Associate Head Coach in July of 2014. In his first season back, Gallagher helped make an immediate impact with the women's team, as the squad posted a 6-3 overall dual meet record that included wins over Boston College and Colgate, as well as the program's first-ever victory over Princeton (0-32) and its first over Penn in 13 years. The Big Red went on to set 11 school records at the 2014 Ivy League championship meet, rewriting the record book throughout the weekend with season and career-best swims. The all-time winningest head coach in Saint Francis history, he guided the program to its first-ever league championship in 2010 to begin a four-peat. His first team in 2004 finished in 11th place at the league meet. Three times during his tenure, the Red Flash tied a school record for dual meet wins in a season with 10, the last coming in 2010-11. Gallagher recruited or coached 12 conference relay champions and 18 conference individual champions, as well as competitors that set eight conference records and 180 all-time top 10 school performances. His teams have been consistently recognized for their efforts in the classroom as well, ranking as CSCAA Scholastic All-America teams and ranking among the NCAA's top 25 grade point averages in eight of the last 10 semesters. During his time at Saint Francis, Gallagher coached swimmers that qualified for the U.S. Winter National Championships in 2011, while also qualifying swimmers for the meet in 2012 and 2013. Gallagher started his collegiate coaching career at Cornell in 2001 and spent two seasons with the Big Red. He served as the team's recruiting coordinator and assisted in all aspects of the program. Working with then-head coach Marrie Neumer, Cornell went 12-11 in dual meet competition. Gallagher worked with Lucia, who was the head coach of the men's program only at the time. Prior to his time at Cornell, Gallagher was the assistant aquatics director at the Albany Country Club (1995-2001) and spent one season as head swimming coach at Methacton HS in Norristown, Pa. He has extensive experience in a camp setting, serving as a counselor at Nebraska, Vermont, New Hampshire and Cornell.Patrick Gallagher

Lucia Volunteer Assistant Coach Joe Lucia, who served as the Philip H. Bartels Head Coach of Men's Swimming for the 28 seasons and also guided the women's program for 15 years, stepped back from his head coaching responsibilities in April 2015 to take on a role as a voluteer assistant and chief fundraiser for the program. The all-time winningest coach for both the men's and women's programs, his 224 combined wins ranks 13th all-time among Big Red coaches in all sports. Lucia's 28 seasons poolside guiding the Cornell men's program also ranks 13th all-time among Big Red coaches and second to Scotty Little's 32 years. During his time with the Big Red, Lucia guided the men's team to a 152-132-1 mark in dual meets. In all, 24 individuals and eight relay teams (six men's, two women's) won Eastern/Ivy League championships since he took over the program in 1987. He directed the 2007 team to a perfect 10-0 dual meet record and a regular season EISL title, while the 2009 squad finished a best-ever third in the EISL meet. His men's teams won six EISL/Ivy League relay events, the first coming in 2006 and four more coming a year later. At the championship meet, Cornell had five individual Eastern champions Individual swimming champions that have won titles under Lucia are: Phil Baity (1), Michael Cai (1), Sasha Evdokimov (2), Dave Hager (1), Dean Holcomb (1), Dave McKechnie (5), Wes Newman (3), Brad Shaw (1), Mike Smit (7) and Sherwood Yuen (2). Four student-athletes - Stefano Caprara, Dave McKechnie, Wes Newman and Mike Smith - qualified for the NCAA championships. A two-time Coach of the Year with the women, Lucia guided three Cornell women's swimmers to Eastern/Ivy League championships (Kim Milligan, Chiara Spinazzola, Trina Young). The 1995 team achieved a third-place finish at the Ivy Championships, while the Big Red women won the 200-yard freestyle relay at the championship meet in both 1994 and 1995, becoming the first Cornell men's or women's team to capture a league relay crown. After the programs were split in 1996, Lucia again took hold of the women in 2010 and had an immediate impact, moving the team from eights in the Ivy League regular season and championships to sixth in duals and fifth at the championship meet. The restructuring of the program in 2008 put Lucia back in charge of both the men's and women's teams for the first time since the 1994-95 season. He directed both programs from when he was appointed October 1987 until 1996. In 1998, when the men's position was endowed by former Cornell swimmer Phil Bartels '73, Lucia became the first Philip H. Bartels Head Coach of Swimming. A 1973 graduate of Cortland State, Lucia came to Cornell after serving as the head swimming coach of Union-Endicott HS and the Union Aquatic Club for 11 years. Having taught in the public school system for 14 years, in addition to coaching at all developmental levels of a United States swimming club, Lucia has a strong grassroots background to effectively communicate and work with collegiate student-athletes. * Updated May 4, 2015

Ellis spent the previous two years as an assistant swimming coach for both the men's and women's programs at Valparaiso, helping the teams break more than two dozen school records during her time there. She assisted in all facets of the program, from scheduling and recruiting to practice planning and meet preparation while earning her Master's degree in Sports Administration. Just prior to joining the staff at Valparaiso, Ellis coached at Nitro Swimming in Austin. At Nitro, she was an assistant coach for the national, sectional, and TAGS groups where she worked with nationally ranked swimmers who competed at the Olympic Trials, World Junior Championships, Senior and Junior National championships. A four-year letter winner at Texas, she was part of school record-setting 200 and 400 medley relay teams. During her four seasons, the Longhorns finished as high as fifth at the NCAA championships, and her teams won Big 12 titles as a sophomore and senior. She graduated in 2011 with a degree in Communication Studies.  Carlye Ellis