Amherst College Athletics

• 3-Time NCAA Division III Women's Coach of the Year
• 35 Individual NCAA Champions
• 5 Relay Team NCAA Champions
• 17 Top-10 Finishes at NCAA Women's Championship
• 8 Top-10 Finishes at NCAA Men's Championship

Head Swimming and Diving Coach Nick Nichols has led the Amherst College men's and women's programs since 1998. The 2021-22 season marks his 23rd season at the helm over 24 years after the COVID-19 pandemic canceled the 2020-21 season. Between the two teams, Nichols has coached swimmers and divers to 35 individual and five relay championship titles at the NCAA Division III Championships.

Nichols has led the women's team to a 161-26-1 dual meet record, including three undefeated dual meet seasons and Little Three Championships and the 2013 NESCAC Championship. His Amherst women's teams have finished in the top 10 at the NCAA Championship 17 times, including consecutive second-place showings in 2007 and 2008 and eighth-place finishes at each of the last two championships.

Nichols has led the men's team to a 152-30 dual meet record, including nine Little Three Championships and three undefeated dual meet seasons. He has led his men's teams to eight top-10 finishes at the NCAA Championship, including back-to-back fifth-place finishes in 2009 and 2010 and a ninth-place finish at the most recent championship in 2019.

Nichols was honored as the NCAA Division III Women's Swimming Coach of the Year by the CSCAA in three straight seasons from 2006–08. The swimming and diving coaches' association also recognized Nichols as one of the 100 Greatest Coaches of the last 100 years during its centennial celebration in 2021.

Nichols came to Amherst after spending five years as the assistant swimming coach for Yale University. Prior to his time at Yale, he spent two seasons as the head swimming coach at the University of Vermont, where he was named the 1990 New England Division I Coach of the Year.

Nichols began coaching after completing an impressive swimming career at St. Lawrence University, where he won five individual NCAA championships. Nichols won three individual events (100 back, 200 back, 200 IM) and was a part of the championship 400-yard freestyle relay team to lead the Saints to a third-place overall finish at the 1980 NCAA Championship. He repeated in the 100-yard backstroke in 1981 and reclaimed the 200-yard IM title in 1982.

Nichols graduated from St. Lawrence in 1982 with a bachelor's degree in government. He currently resides in Amherst with his wife, Yanik, and daughter, Georgia.