Maureen Travers begins her eighth season as head coach of the C.W. Post women’s swimming program. She was chosen to head the fledgling program during the spring of 2002, and she also serves as aquatics director for C.W. Post’s Pratt Recreation Center.
The 2008-09 season was a time of individual success for Travers’ squad, as eight new records were set throughout the season. The Pioneers posted a 4-6 record in dual meets, taking home a fourth place finish at the Metropolitan Championships. Six team members qualified to compete at the Division II NCAA Championships, combining for an overall 20th place finish. Mariel Andersson led the squad, earning All-America honors as she placed seventh in the 200-yard backstroke. Brittany Roman-Green made a strong showing for C.W. Post, receiving Honorable Mention All-America in the same event. The Pioneers showed their strengths in the classroom as well, earning Team All-America honors for the highest collective GPA in Division II, and turning out four Scholar All-Americans and one Scholar Honorable Mention.
The 2007-08 season saw the Pioneers finish 8-3 in dual meets, and finish 17th for a second straight year at the Division II NCAA Championships. The Pioneers competed in 13 events at NCAA’s and placed in the top 10 in three events, including a fourth place showing by Katie Kelly in the 200 breaststroke. In addition, the team garnered a 16th place finish at the ECAC Championships, and a fourth place showing at the Metropolitan Conference Championships.
The 2006-07 season was one of the most successful as the Pioneers put together a 12-4 dual meet record and achieved success on the national level. C.W. Post placed third at the Metropolitan Conference Championships, and had five individuals and four relay teams qualify for Nationals, where the team placed 17th. Under Travers’ tutelage, Jenn Esposito and Mariel Andersson were named All-Americans while five others received Honorable Mention. Both Andersson and Shannon Rideout were named individual Academic All-Americans while the team earned Team Academic All-American honors for the third straight year.
Travers was named the Metropolitan Swimming Conference 2007 Women’s Coach of the Year. She is the Division II women’s representative for the College Swimming Coaches Association of America.
During the 2004-05 campaign, the C.W. Post swimming team posted a 6-3 dual-meet mark, earned a fifth-place finish at the Metropolitan Championships, and placed 11th at the ECAC Championships.
In 2003-04, Travers led the team to a 6-6 mark and was acknowledged at the conclusion of the campaign as the Metropolitan Conference Coach of the Year. During that first year, the Pioneers were edged in three meets by a combined 38 points.
Prior to her appointment at C.W. Post, Travers was head coach for five years with the men’s and women’s swimming team and women’s water polo squad at Whittier (Calif.). Her tenure was marked by 25 new school records in swimming and included a men’s conference champion in the 200-yard butterfly and a women’s national qualifier in the 100-yard breaststroke. Five members of her women’s water polo team garnered All-America kudos.
Travers’s coaching resume also includes a stint as assistant men’s and women’s swimming coach for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1991-95), head coach of the Harvard women’s water polo squad (1993-97), and head coach of the women’s swimming team at Simmons College from 1995-97. In August 1990, Travers added an impressive accomplishment to her swimming resume, as she swam across the English Channel.
The Levittown, N.Y. resident graduated from Queens College in 1987 with a degree in physical education before earning a master’s degree in exercise & sports studies from Smith College in Northampton, Mass. She was team Most Valuable Player for Queens in 1984 and 1985 in swimming, and also won team MVP accolades while competing for the men’s water polo team in 1987.