Column | Penn State's Hollie Bonewit-Cron hire proves beneficial in Year 1

The Penn State swimming and diving program faced a rollercoaster of results during its 2024-25 season, which finished with the Big Ten Championships, where both the men’s and women's teams fell short of a top-nine finish.

However, there’s a silver lining. First-year head coach Hollie Bonewit-Cron replaced interim coaches Dan Carrington and Erin Mattyus, who stepped in after Tim Murphy's long tenure at the helm.

In her first full season, Bonewit-Cron led the men's team to an impressive 5-4 regular-season record, while the women’s team achieved a notable 4-5 finish.

These outcomes reflect different stages in each squad’s development. The men’s team achieved only its second winning record in the last five seasons, and the women’s team finished below .500 for the first time since the 2017-18 season.

Despite the mixed results, Bonewit-Cron's appointment will surely be a program-defining hire, as she has had previous experience like no other coach.

She arrived in Happy Valley after being honored five times as the Mid-American Conference Men's Coach of the Year at Miami University. Before that, she built an entire program at Nova Southeastern University, where she served as the first coach and led the team to four Sunshine State Conference championships, ultimately being inducted into the school’s Hall of Fame in 2022.

Now, Bonewit-Cron has a renewed opportunity to succeed in adverse circumstances. As the fourth head coach in the history of Penn State swimming and diving for both the men's and women’s teams, she plays a crucial role in unlocking the program's true potential.

This is especially significant, considering the women’s team hasn't reached a team podium finish at the Big Ten Championships in over a decade. In contrast, the men’s team has faced an even longer drought of over 20 years.

Despite being unable to provide results in this year's postseason, there have still been empowering results that can help build momentum into the future.

Promising times were achieved at the Big Ten Championships, where both the men's and women's swimmers posted season and career bests, highlighted by a pair of school records set by junior Matthew Bittner, who is set to return next year.

Despite the blue and white having many of its top swimmers returning for next season, it's set to lose key contributors from both teams, such as Victor Baganha, Jack Harvey and Filipe Pinheiro for the men's team. The women's team may lose Margaret Markvardt, who has broken 10 national records in her home country of Estonia.

Given the loss of talent confronting Bonewit-Cron, she’s already recruited six swimmers to strengthen next year's roster.

With her proven ability to develop a program, this influx of recruits and the advancement of underclassmen swimmers signals a positive outlook for Penn State swimming and diving, offering her the opportunity to shape the program in her own way.

Returning swimmers must step up, fill the ranks as needed and make considerable improvements in the pool to make an impact in Big Ten postseason play.

With a contest against the best in the conference, the Nittany Lions must cultivate a stronger team culture and use a more significant rotation, a task only Bonewit-Cron can achieve.

Next season will usher in an exciting new era, made possible by Bonewit-Cron’s experienced leadership. In her first season at the helm, she showed she is well-suited for the role, and in the upcoming season, she is poised to make waves in the Big Ten with her new-look Penn State squad.