Wake Forest Sports Hall of Fame
- Induction:
- 2011
Nolan Swanson is one of the most decorated and outstanding members of the Wake Forest track & field family.
Remarkably, Swanson walked on to the team as a freshman and never looked back. He won the ACC Cross Country Championship that same year and would go on to have similar success in track & field over the next four years. Swanson won two events at the ACC Indoor Championship (the 5,000m in 1997 and the 3,000m in 1999) and four Outdoor Championship events (the 5,000m and the steeplechase in 1998 and 1999), making him a six-time ACC track event champion. He was recognized as the Most Outstanding Performer at the 1999 ACC Outdoor Track & Field Championship and was named team MVP that same season. He was also named to the All-ACC Indoor Team in 1997 and 1998, as well as the All-ACC Outdoor Team in 1998 and 1999. He set the ACC record in the 10,000m his senior year with a time of 28:31.51, a record that still holds today.
Swanson still maintains three Wake Forest all-time records in the 3,000m, the 10,000m, and the 3,00m steeplechase. Additional awards and honors include the Arnold Palmer Award in 1998 and selection to the ACC's 50th Anniversary Cross Country Team.
In his professional career, Swanson qualified for the 2004 IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Brussels and also placed sixth in the men's open division of the 12,000m at the USA Cross Country Championships.
