Albright College welcomed Cindy Ikeler into the Hall of Fame. Her path to Hall of Fame recognition has been full of accomplishments as a swimmer and as a head coach.
Since 2012, Ikeler has led them to four women’s conference championships and three men’s conference championships. With her guidance the record books have been rewritten, swimmers have been recognized as rookie of the year and swimmer of the year and the coaching staff was recognized as coaching staff of the year. Ikeler has also been named conference coach of the year four times.
As a decorated high school swimmer, Ikeler had been recruited by schools in all three NCAA divisions. However, Ikeler’s collegiate career began at Albright. The idea of being a student athlete is a concept that she embraced.
“I really liked the idea that in Division III you’re supposed to be a student first, you’re there to get an education first and foremost,” Ikeler said.
After a collegiate career with filled with broken records, conference championships and MVP’s, Ikeler graduated in 2005 ready to move on from swimming. She would eventually find out about an assistant coaching position at her alma mater. This would be the opportunity that launched her coaching career, which ultimately led to Cabrini.
To begin her head coaching career at Cabrini, Ikeler faced a learning curve. It was different from her experience at Albright. Now she was the person in charge. Despite the responsibility and pressure of being a head coach, she found the enjoyable aspect of the job. She now had the ability to craft and build the team to her liking. Her skill in building the team is an aspect of her career that she attributes to her college swim coach. Her coach helped her to understand the ins and outs of coaching, how to build a winning team and how to be a good leader.
Ikeler, saw the success of other Cabrini teams and used them as inspiration.
“Here at Cabrini we’ve had extremely successful teams so it was us wanting to be that,” Ikeler said.
With Ikeler now leading the way the Cavaliers swim team had nowhere to go but up. Her impact as a coach was felt right away as she led the Cavaliers to their best finishes in the AMCC Championships in 2013. Both teams combined for an 83 point improvement from the championship the previous year. The next year, with Ikeler’s leadership, Cabrini claimed its first AMCC Women’s Championship in program history.
When Ikeler received the call from Albright about her Hall of Fame induction she was excited and felt very honored. The feelings were mutual among her swimmers. Catherine Sexton, swimmer, felt pure happiness when she heard of her coach’s Hall of Fame induction.
“Cindy’s induction means so much to me and my fellow teammates,” Sexton said. “She is proof that as a woman: hard work, respect, determination and perseverance define achievement.”
