Swimmer of the Year Carli Quinlan leads Simmons Sharks to 2nd place finish in the GNAC Championships

Image via Simmons Athletic Department.

“I think only of my races…I remind myself that I know what I’m doing, I’ve been doing it forever.”

Carli Quinlan, the Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) 2024 Swimmer of the Year, prepares for her record-breaking races by visualizing her swim. Following along with YouTube videos, Quinlan thinks through every possible scenario, picturing what she would do if anything went wrong in the pool.

Quinlan, a sophomore Nursing major, had previously earned the honor of Rookie of the Year during the 2022-2023 season. At this year’s championship, Quinlan earned four individual medals: she won the 50-yard, 100-yard, and 200-yard freestyle, and came in second in the 50-yard butterfly.

Quinlan registered personal best times in all four of these events and broke the GNAC record in the 200-yard freestyle. She also broke the Simmons 50-yard butterfly in a time trial. 

The Simmons Sharks finished second overall in the GNAC Championship with 781 points.

Before joining the Sharks, Quinlan swam for Haverhill High School’s varsity team with her sister–now the Simmons Swimming and Diving Team Captain–Katelyn Quinlan. 

Before high school, Carli and Katelyn Quinlan swam together in the summer. In college, the sisters shared a practice lane in the Simmons pool and competed in four relays together. 

At the GNAC Championships, all four of the Quinlans’ relays came in first place, bringing Carli Quinlan’s first-place medal count up to seven. 

“She definitely pushes me in practice, and I push her,” said Carli Quinlan. 

In addition to Katelyn Quinlan’s four first-place relay finishes, the senior Nursing major earned second-place finishes in the 500-yard freestyle and the 100-yard Individual Medley, and third-place finishes in the 200-yard and 400-yard Individual Medleys.

The Quinlan sisters took home a combined total of seven first-place medals, three second-place medals, and two third-place medals. 

Juniors Camelia Hannah and Hailey Stuck also had stellar performances: Hannah won the 50-yard backstroke, made the All-Sportsmanship team, and swam on first-place-winning and second-place-winning relay teams, and Stuck came in third in the 50-yard freestyle and swam on a first-place-winning relay team. 

Carli Quinlan attributes her team’s success to “just phenomenal” coaching. 

According to Quinlan, Head Coach Michael Prout Jr. and Assistant Coach Natalie Giraldi “make [her and her teammates] want to be so much better.” 

On top of their Feb. 4 second-place GNAC finish, Simmons Swimming and Diving was among the 738 teams named Fall Scholar All America Teams by the College Swimming and Diving Coaches Association of America on Feb. 5.