Seattle University’s impending transition to the West Coast Conference has claimed three victims. Seattle U Athletics announced Nov. 14 that the men’s tennis program as well as men’s and women’s indoor track and field programs will be discontinued at the end of the season.
Changes in Seattle U’s athletic programs have been expected as the school prepares for a new conference and level of play. For example, the WCC does not offer swimming, which led the swim teams to move to the Big West Conference to compete in the 2025-26 season. However, the discontinuation of the three programs was a significant move for the university.
Vice President of Athletics Shaney Fink saw this decision as a way to ensure the school’s 17 remaining programs compete at a high level in the new conference.
“As we looked at our teams and how we’re serving our student athletes, it became clear that this was the best way to make sure that we’re using our resources most wisely,” Fink said.
The decision to discontinue both men’s and women’s indoor track and field largely has to do with the WCC’s track offerings. The new conference only hosts an outdoor cross country championship, which Seattle U will continue to compete in. Indoor events like sprints and jumps are being phased out, although Fink explained that athletes in these sports who stay at Seattle U will still have some opportunity to compete.
For men’s tennis, the athletes remaining after the 2024-25 season will not be given opportunities to compete through Seattle U. The factors that motivated this decision were different from indoor track and field.
“We’ve been kind of splitting resources between the [men’s and women’s tennis] programs,” Fink said. “[This decision will] make sure that the women’s program has the resources they need to continue to be competitive in the West Coast Conference.”
Men’s tennis concluded their fall season at the Gonzaga Invitational Nov. 10, with Yuan Lu making the east finals in the red doubles draw. Lu, a freshman kinesiology major, came to Seattle from Suzhou, China, and learned that the men’s tennis team would be discontinued after a November practice.
“I’m very shocked. I just came here, in my first quarter, and when I heard the news I was like, wow. My teammates said they probably knew [this would happen,]” he said.
Seven of the nine players on the men’s tennis team are in their senior year. Besides Lu, the only other men’s tennis player who will not graduate in the spring is Yu-Han Hsieh, a junior student from Tainan, Taiwan. Lu’s path forward is unclear.
“I’m in the transfer portal now, so I can contact other university coaches. I’m not sure now. It’s a tough decision. If I stay here, maybe I’ll just end my career. 10 years of work, just finished,” he said.
Change on the coaching side will be minimal. Men’s tennis coach Kristina Hollander is also the women’s tennis coach. Hollander will continue in this role. Current track and field coach Jordana LeSavage will continue to coach distance runners in the WCC.
Non-distance runners were frustrated with the decision. Rock Gignac, a sophomore business analytics major and long jumper on the track team, had already seen the writing on the wall for his program.
“There were definitely talks of it last year, and I think I kind of just put that to the side, because one, I didn’t want it to be true, and two, I didn’t really want that to mess up what was happening in that season,” Gignac said.
Gignac will compete in the decathlon in the 2024-25 season. The team heard about the WCC transition at their conference championship last spring, which sparked uncertainty around the conference’s lack of indoor track and field competition.
“We kind of all came to the program thinking we’d get an uninterrupted four years of competing, and it’s not really going to turn out like that,” Gignac said.
Like Lu, Gignac is uncertain if he will transfer or stay at Seattle U. Still, Gignac was glad the school is offering athletes on the indoor track and field team the opportunity to exhaust their NCAA eligibility at Seattle U.
“We’re obviously all appreciative of that because they could have went ahead and done what they did to [men’s] tennis,” Gignac said.
Gignac found a positive environment in Seattle U Athletics. The small size of the program made him and the other athletes on the team feel supported. Gignac stated that while the team accepted the decision, having their team discontinued is frustrating.
“There’s definitely some people in the athletics administration that care about us, and there’s definitely some people that don’t,” he said.
There is still time to see these teams compete. Men’s tennis will finish out their season in the spring. The indoor track and field season will begin in 2025.