Alicia Hicken

Position: Assistant Coach Year: Second (Minnesota '97)

Alicia Hicken is no stranger to swimming success.

The 24-year-old assistant coach is one of the youngest assistant coaches in the Pac-10 and enters her second year at the position. Her daily routine includes coaching, recruiting and handling administrative duties. Hicken works with the distance swimmers, with her experienced background in the event.

Hicken was appointed as an assistant coach during the 1998-99 season. She helped guide the Cougars to 10 school record breaking performances at the Pac-10 Championships, an NCAA 30th finish, academic national recognition by the College Swimming Coaches Association of America (CSCAA) and witnessed the emergence of the program's first NCAA All-American.

Hicken witnessed many more Cougar milestones as a volunteer coach in 1997-98 - while a full-time graduate student. Washington State had its first NCAA qualifier and eclipsed 12 school records at the conference meet that year.

Prior to her arrival in 1997, Hicken was all too familiar with the NCAA Division I collegiate swimming scene. She was a four-year student-athlete at the University of Minnesota, where she specialized in the 500 and 1,650 distance events for the Golden Gophers. Each of those four years at Minnesota, Hicken turned in NCAA consideration times. She is a five-time Big Ten Conference Championship individual finalist and a three-time Canadian Senior National Championship individual medallist. Hicken was honored as an Academic All-American Honorable Mention during her senior season.

Hicken served as an assistant coach for the Twin Cities Swim Team in Minneapolis. She guided numerous swimmers to Junior and Senior Nationals.

She resides in Pullman and is enrolled in the WSU Graduate School pursuing a master's degree in exercise physiology. She is a 1997 graduate of the University of Minnesota where she earned a bachelor's degree in kinesiology. She is originally from Toronto, Canada and enjoys the outdoors of the Palouse.