University of Denver Athletics

Alicia Hicken-Franklin completed her sixth season as the head coach of the Pioneers in 2024-25. Hicken-Franklin was named head coach on July 23, 2019 after spending 16 seasons, including 11 as the associate head coach, at Denver before coaching the two seasons at her alma mater Minnesota as the Gophers' associate head coach.

Awards:
2025 Summit League Women’s Swimming Coach of the Year
2025 Summit League Men’s Swimming Coach of the Year
2024 Summit League Women’s Swimming Coach of the Year
2023 Summit League Women’s Swimming Coach of the Year
2022 Summit League Women’s Swimming Coach of the Year
2022 Summit League Men’s Swimming Coach of the Year
2021 Summit League Women’s Swimming Coach of the Year
2020 Summit League Women’s Swimming Coach of the Year
2020 Summit League Men’s Swimming Coach of the Year

2024-25: Hicken-Franklin led the Pioneers to another dominant sweep of the Summit League Championship in 2025, the 12th-straight title in 12 years in the league for the women's program and the 11th men's title. In total, 37 student-athletes earned a spot on the All-Summit League Teams, while Hicken-Franklin earned a sweep of the head coaching awards at the league championships. Denver's swimmers also earned three specialty awards at the championships. Jessica Maeda was named the Summit League Women's Swimmer of the Championship for the second-straight year, Hamish McLellan was tabbed the Men's Newcomer of the Championship and Brandon Chapman was named the Men's Swimmer of the Championship. In the classroom, Denver's men earned the sixth-best GPA in the country in the fall quarter with a 3.68, while the women's 3.67 team GPA in the fall quarter was good for 45th in the country. 

2023-24: Hicken-Franklin once again guided the Pioneers to a pair of Summit League Championships, the 11th-straight for the Denver women and the 10th in 11 years for the Pioneer men. Her squads combined to put 28 student-athletes on the All-Summit League Teams, Hicken-Franklin earned Summit League Women's Coach of the Year. Sabrina Rachjaibun was tabbed the Summit League Newcomer of the Championship and Jessica Maeda earned both Summit League Women's Swimmer of the Championship and Women's Swimmer of the Year. Outside of the classroom, Denver had eight student-athletes named to the Summit League All-Academic Team. The Denver men's program combined for the eight-best GPA in the country in the fall quarter, while the women's program finished 28th nationally. 

2022-23: Hicken-Franklin guided the Pioneers to their 10th-straight Summit League Women's Championship, and their ninth men's championship in the last 10 years. She led her team to six Summit League All-Academic honorees, 31 swimmers and divers on the All-Summit League honors and a clear-sweep of the women's championship awards. Hicken-Franklin once again coached Natalie Arky to a National Championship appearance, after the Denver redshirt-senior was named both the Summit League Women's Swimmer of the Championship and the Summit League Women's Swimmer of the Year. The fourth-year coach also guided Mina Ada Solaker to the Women's Newcomer of the Championship award. In addition to Arky's NCAA Championship appearance, Hicken-Franklin led the Denver men to a 10th place finish and the Pioneer women to a 13th place finish in the 2023 CSCAA National Invitational Championships. Denver was one of seven programs to have both its men's and women's programs inside the top-13. 

2021-22: Hicken-Franklin continued her success within the Summit League, leading the both the women's and men's teams to the Summit League Championship, the ninth straight for the women and eighth overall for the men. The third-year coach had her teams nearly sweep all the major awards in swimming, with Marco Nosack being the Summit League Men's Swimmer of the Year and Natalie Arky the Summit League Women's Swimmer of the Year. Not be outdone, Hicken-Franklin was selected as the Summit League Swimming Coach of the Year. 

2020-21: Hicken-Franklin led the Denver women to their eighth-straight Summit League Championship, winning the event by nearly 350 points. Hicken-Franklin coached Women's Swimming Championship MVP Emily Vandenberg, 2020-21 Summit League Women's Swimmer of the Year Aysia Leckie and Newcomer of the Championship Ines Marin. With a shortened roster, Denver's men finished third at the 2021 Summit League Championships.  

2019-20: In her first season as the head coach at Denver, Hicken-Franklin swept the program's seventh-straight Summit League Championship, taking all but one swimming event at the championships. Hicken-Franklin coached the men's program to three individuals and a program-best four relays to qualify for nationals.
 
Prior to Being a Head Coach at Denver: The CollegeSwimming.com 2016 Assistant Coach of the Year nominee helped guide the Pioneers to back-to-back-to-back Summit League titles before departing for Minneapolis. While at Denver, Hicken-Franklin focused on the Pioneers' distance swimmers, coaching a pair of All-Americans that set Summit League records in the 500 and 1,650 free. Prior to Denver, Hicken-Franklin was an assistant at Washington State for three seasons before arriving in the Mile High City for her first stint, guiding the Cougars to 25 school records and their first top-30 finish in program history.
 
Swimming Career: As a swimmer at Minnesota, the 1997 graduate was a six-time Big Ten Conference finalist in the 200, 500 and 1650 free. In the classroom, Hicken-Franklin was a two-time Academic Honorable Mention All-America selection in her junior and senior year. Hicken-Franklin was a finalist at the 1992 Canadian Olympic Trails.

Personal: A native of Campbellville, Ontario, Hicken-Franklin graduated with a BS in kinesiology. She also received her MS in physiology of exercise from Washington State in 2000.