The University of North Dakota is eliminating three sports to help meet budget cuts ordered by school President Mark Kennedy.
UND athletic director Brian Faison (FAY’-zahn) announced Wednesday that his department is cutting women’s hockey and men’s and women’s swimming and diving. Faison called it a sad day he had hoped to avoid.
Kennedy ordered that $1.3 million be cut out of athletics as part of ongoing budget cuts due in large part to the state’s bleak financial picture.
The women’s hockey program, which began in 2002, reached the NCAA quarterfinals two straight years when twin sisters and U.S. Olympians Monique and Jocelyne Lamoureux played for the team. The men’s and women’s swimming teams moved up to Division I in 2008.
The move leaves UND athletics with 18 programs.
