Female Athletes File Sex Discrimination Class Action Against Hanover College for Eliminating Women’s Swimming Team and Violating Title IX

Seek Preservation of Women’s Swimming, Equal Opportunities for All Women

‍Four female swimming team members at Hanover College filed a sex discrimination class action against the school today for discriminating against its female student-athletes and potential student-athletes in violation of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana, charges Hanover with depriving women of equal opportunities to participate in varsity sports. The school just announced it was eliminating its women’s swimming team, along with its men’s team, when it is already providing women with approximately 170 fewer opportunities than the law requires.

“Title IX requires schools to give women and men equal opportunities to participate in varsity sports,” said Lucy Schoenlein, women’s team captain and one of the plaintiffs in the case. “But Hanover College has been depriving women of equal opportunities for decades – and now it’s eliminated the women’s swimming team. So, we’re going to fight for our team, our teammates, and all of the women at Hanover. This sex discrimination has to stop.”

Women’s swimming team members Tallulah Frazier, Shelby Geraghty, and Anna Williams are also plaintiffs in the case.

“Hanover’s elimination of its women’s swimming team is a flagrant violation of Title IX,” said Arthur Bryant of Arthur Bryant Law, P.C., in Oakland, CA, lead counsel for the athletes. “According to the most recent publicly available information, women were 50.34% of Hanover’s undergraduates in 2024-25, but they were given only 34.86% of the opportunities to participate in varsity sports. Hanover needs to add around 170 opportunities for women to reach gender equity. It should not be eliminating any women’s teams.”

“This is sex discrimination, plain and simple,” said Kimberly Dougherty of Justice Law Collaborative, P.C., in North Easton, MA. “Hanover created its varsity swimming team a decade ago. The team thrived when it had a full-time coach, but now, after giving it only a part-time coach and no assistant, Hanover is saying women don’t have the interest and ability to participate in varsity swimming. The problem isn’t the women. It’s Hanover.”

Catherine Cawley of Justice Law Collaborative, P.C., Mark Sniderman of Sniderman Law in Indianapolis, IN, and Libby Harmon and Timothy Nevius of Nevius Legal are co-counsel for the women athletes.

On March 20, 2026, Hanover abruptly announced it was eliminating its women’s and men’s swimming teams. The teams’ members were stunned.

On May 26, 2026, Bryant, Harmon, and Nevius emailed a letter to Hanover President Lake Lambert, explaining that the elimination of the women’s team violated Title IX and requesting a meeting to discuss preserving the team and ensuring Hanover’s Title IX compliance.

As the letter noted, Title IX prohibits educational institutions receiving federal funds from eliminating women’s teams for which interest, ability, and competition are available unless “intercollegiate level participation opportunities for male and female students are provided in numbers substantially proportionate to their respective enrollments.” Hanover fails that test.

According to the most recent Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act (EADA) data that Hanover submitted and verified to the U.S. Department of Education as accurate, Hanover had a total undergraduate population of 1,021 in 2024-25, including 514 women and 507 men. So, undergraduate enrollment was 50.34% women. (The 2025-26 EADA data is not yet publicly available.) The school’s intercollegiate athletic teams had 545 athletes: 190 women and 355 men. They were only 34.86% women—creating a gap of 15.48% between the women’s undergraduate enrollment rate and their intercollegiate athletic participation rate. Hanover needed to add 170 women’s opportunities to comply with Title IX.

But Hanover had just announced that it was going to eliminate the women’s swimming team in 2026-27, along with the smaller men’s swimming team. As a result, the school’s athletic participation rate for women will decrease when it needs to increase.

After Hanover received the May 26 letter from Bryant, Harmon, and Nevius, the lawyers for the school and the women met. But the school refused to agree to continue the women’s team and come into compliance with Title IX. So, the women filed suit.

Along with the class action, the women filed an emergency motion for a preliminary injunction preserving the women’s swimming team and all other women’s teams at the school while the case proceeds. A date for a hearing on the motion has not yet been set.

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Contacts:
Arthur Bryant, 510-507-9972, arthur@arthurbryantlaw.com
Kim Dougherty, 508-230-2700, kim@justicelc.com

Links:
Class Action Complaint filed August 25, 2026
Plaintiffs’ Emergency Motion for Preliminary Injunction filed August 25, 2026