Blakely-Armitage to lead Ithaca College swim teams

Mike Blakely-Armitage has been a staple in the Ithaca swimming community for the past two decades. After stints as the head coach at Ithaca High School and the assistant coach Ithaca College, he will be staying on South Hill in a new role.

Last month, Ithaca College announced that Blakely-Armitage was hired as the next head coach of the men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams. Blakely-Armitage was in the midst of his second spell as an associate head coach, and now he gets to lead both programs at his alma mater.

“It’s a great honor,” Blakely-Armitage said. “I’m humbled and I just want to give back to the program. It’s given a lot to me, and I feel like we can do a lot of great things. We’ve got a lot of motivated student-athletes, and I’m looking forward to leading my staff and hopefully win some meets and get some fast swims in throughout the year.”

Blakely-Armitage takes over from Kevin Markwardt, who announced his retirement at the end of May. Markwardt led the men’s team since 1987 and took over the women’s team in 2020 from another longtime head coach in Paula Miller. She is still part of the staff as a volunteer assistant coach, and Blakely-Armitage is grateful to learn so much from two iconic head coaches.

“Kevin gave his assistant coaches a lot of freedom to do the work that needed to be done,” Blakely-Armitage said. “I think it was a great way to learn by trial and error, so to speak. That was experimenting, learning some new things, doing some things independently. There was a lot of opportunities for me to learn the things that I needed to know for my eventual role here as a head coach… Having [Paula] kind of in my back pocket as a mentor and somebody who I’ll be working with is a huge asset.”

Taking over two teams will certainly come with its challenges. Blakely-Armitage will oversee around 60 student-athletes combined, but he’s treating it as business as usual.

“Like we do every year, you have to bring people into your culture and teach them your culture,” Blakely-Armitage said. “We’re going to be doing that again. All of our first-years coming in, they’re going to be learning our culture. Our returning swimmers and divers are going to be their mentors, but we’re shifting things. While a lot of the cultural elements will still be the same, there’s some things that we’re definitely going to be stepping up in terms of our expectations… A lot of that will be basic accountability and things like that, but also getting them into a mindset of excellence every single day. Not that that didn’t happen before, but there’s definitely going to be a different emphasis on it and getting my brand of it.”

If Blakely-Armitage’s last head coaching gig was anything to go by, then the Bombers should be destined for greatness. He led the boys swimming and diving team at Ithaca High from 2009 to 2019 and the girls team from 2015-19. During his time, the Little Red combined for a 99-1 record at dual meets and 11 Section IV titles. He shared what the biggest difference is between coaching at the high school and college level.

“We’re recruiting athletes that are going to kind of be in line with my kind of vision,” Blakely-Armitage said. “You don’t always have a choice in high school about what you’re getting, so you’re motivating and teaching all the kids that come to you. In some ways, that’s really rewarding. From the college standpoint, I’m able to try to pick and choose these kids and mold them and motivate them to be great student-athletes. It’s not just about athletics. We’re also helping them with their careers and their academic pursuits, too, and helping them to develop themselves as a whole person through this student-athletic journey.”

While the season doesn’t begin until October 14 for both teams, Blakely-Armitage identified which swimmers to be on the lookout for. On the men’s side, senior sprinter James Collishaw is coming off a national championship appearance in the 100-yard freestyle, breaking the program record at nationals.

As for the women’s side, Sonia Mlakar stole all the headlines in her debut campaign. The rising sophomore helped the Bombers win their fourth straight Liberty League title and was named the conference’s Rookie of the Year. She also swam at nationals in the 100-yard and 200-yard backstrokes as well as the 200-yard and 400-yard freestyle relays. On top of all that, she broke three program records in both backstroke events and the 100-yard butterfly.

From top to bottom, the Bombers are eager to get back in the pool and continue their status as one of the top swimming programs at the Division III level.

“The kids are really excited,” Blakely-Armitage said. “They’re really pumped about what we can potentially do. I’m working on our training plans and our preparation. I’m really looking forward to putting together things I’ve been thinking about for a couple of years.”