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After becoming the first full-time women's swimming coach at LMU, Bonnie Adair enters her fifth season with the Lions. Adair joined the LMU program in 2002-03 with a 35-year background in swimming. In her first season as a full-time head coach, Adair added 17 newcomers to the program's roster, which doubled the team's size and jump-started the new era of LMU swimming. Now in her fifth season at the helm of the Lions' swimming program, Adair has turned the LMU program into a contender for the Pacific Coast Swimming Conference Championship. The Lions finished a program-best third in the conference in 2005 and set 16 of 19 school records in a history-making season. LMU earned its first two conference event titles in 2005, winning both the 200 medley relay (Lauren Mathewson, Morgan Finley, Angela Samuels, Katie Hicks) and the 100 backstroke (Mathewson). The 2005-06 Lions added four more PCSC titles, winning the 200 medley relay (Mathewson, Sarah Hamilton, Samuels, Hicks), the 100 freestyle (Hicks), the 100 breaststroke (Hamilton) and the 100 backstroke (Mathewson). LMU posted a dual record of 9-5 in that season, marking the second straight winning season under Adair. The dual mark is also LMU's all-time best dual record. Highlighted by 11 new school records and four PCSC event titles, Loyola Marymount finished a program-best second of 14 teams in the conference at the 2006-07 PCSC Championship. The team finished 7-5 in dual meets to extend Adair's winning-season streak to three straight. PCSC Championship triple winner Mathewson, along with teammates Morgan Finley, Alex Wike, Trinity O'Neill, and Samuels were selected to the PCSC All-Conference team. Senior Amanda Luciano was named to the PCSC All-Academic team. The five LMU selections marked the most swimmers the Lions have ever placed on the All-Conference team. Mathewson's three event titles came in the 50 freestyle, 100 backstroke, and 200 backstroke, earning her PCSC Swimmer of the Year honors. She was also a member of the 200 medley relay, along with Finley, Samuels and Wike, which shattered the existing meet record by over a second en route to the Lion victory. During her own 13-year swimming career, she set 35 National Age Group records including a 50m freestyle record that stood for 29 years. Competing in 12 National Championships (her first at age 13) and two Olympic Trials, Adair became a National finalist in the 100 free and 100 fly and a member of a 400-meter medley relay that established four American records. She attended UCLA as an undergraduate and then Loyola Law School. During law school, Adair was the assistant coach of the UCLA women's swim team and also coached the Team Santa Monica age group team. In 1979, Adair, along with current LMU assistant Clay Evans, created the Santa Monica Masters Swim Team, which later became SCAQ - now the largest Masters program in the United States with over 900 active members. In their 30 years coaching together, it is estimated that Adair and Evans have coached or instructed 20,000 Los Angeles-area swimmers. Between 1985 and 1994, Adair came out of swimming retirement to compete in several Masters National Championships and World Games and set national and world records in the freestyle sprint events and 100 and 200 IMs. She has contributed swimming articles to SWIM Magazine and Fitness Swimmer Magazine and was honored as the United States Masters Coach of the Year in 1997. From 1996-1999, Adair was the head coach of the men's and women's swimming teams at Santa Monica College, where she earned the Western State Conference Women's Coach of the Year award in 1997. In 1998, her women's team tied for the conference title and placed sixth in the state. Her men's team also earned a sixth place finish. Adair currently resides in West Los Angeles. |
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