By Braden Keith on SwimSwam
James Sutherland contributed to this report.
U.S. District Court Judge Sarah Evans Barker has issued a 23-page order granting a preliminary injunction to bar Hanover College from “eliminating its women’s swimming team for the 2026-2027 academic year.”
The NCAA Division III school in Hanover, Indiana annoucned in March that it would cut its men’s and women’s swimming programs, citing facility concerns, rising operational costs, and a declining roster size. That led to four members of the women’s team to file a Title IX lawsuit accusing the school of shirking requirements of equitable access for men’s and women’s athletics for decades.
The injunction does not impact the men’s team.
The lead plaintiffs of the class action suit are women’s team captain Lucy Schoenlein, along with teammates Tallulah Frazier, Shelby Geraghty and Anna Williams.
The Court’s Preliminary Injunction also ordered the school “to provide the women’s swim team with sufficient funding , staffing, and other benefits commensurate with its status as an intercollegiate team, including, but not limited to, retention of a coach to perform both coaching and recruiting roles and undertaking an appropriate lease arrangement allowing team members access to and use of a suitable swimming pool.”
The swimmers are being represented by Arthur Bryant of Arthur Bryant Law, who has served as lead counsel of several other women’s swim & dive programs suing their schools on Title IX grounds. That includes landmark cases at San Diego State and Concordia University – Irvine.
According to Bryant, Hanover cut both the men’s and women’s swim teams despite the school already providing women with approximately 170 fewer opportunities than required by law.
“Hanover’s elimination of its women’s swimming team is a flagrant violation of Title IX,” said Bryant. “According to the most recent publicly available information, women were 50.34% of Hanover’s undergraduates in 2024-25, but they were given only 34.86% of the opportunities to participate in varsity sports. Hanover needs to add around 170 opportunities for women to reach gender equity. It should not be eliminating any women’s teams.”
The Hanover swim program was relatively new, having competed for the first time in the 2018-19 season.
Last season, the program had eight female swimmers on its roster and five male, meaning the school’s gender disparity in terms of athletic participation opportunity increases with the removal of both teams.
“This is sex discrimination, plain and simple,” said Kimberly Dougherty of Justice Law Collaborative, P.C. “Hanover created its varsity swimming team a decade ago. The team thrived when it had a full-time coach, but now, after giving it only a part-time coach and no assistant, Hanover is saying women don’t have the interest and ability to participate in varsity swimming. The problem isn’t the women. It’s Hanover.”
According to Arthur Bryant Law, counsel for the swimmers sent a letter to the school in May requesting a meeting to discuss the Title IX implications of the decision to cut the women’s team. The meeting was accepted, but “the school refused to agree to continue the women’s team and come into compliance with Title IX,” Arthur Bryant Law said in its press release. “So, the women filed suit.”
In addition to the lawsuit, the four swimmers also filed a emergency motion for a preliminary injunction preserving the women’s swimming team and all other women’s teams at the school while the case proceeds.
Last season, the Hanover women’s team placed 5th out of seven teams at the 2026 Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference Championships, moving up one spot from the year prior, while the men took 6th out of six teams.
Read the full story on SwimSwam: Judge Issues Preliminary Injunction Requiring Hanover College to Continue Women’s Swimming Team
Hence then, the article about judge issues preliminary injunction requiring hanover college to continue women s swimming team was published today ( ) and is available on swimswam ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Judge Issues Preliminary Injunction Requiring Hanover College to Continue Women’s Swimming Team )
Also on site :