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| Matt Kredich |
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 | Position: Head Coach
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 | Experience: 7th Season
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 | Alma Mater: Duke 1988
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Success has followed Tennessee head women's swimming coach Matt Kredich at every stop of his career, and his six-year tenure on Rocky Top has been no different.
After turning around the men's and women's swimming teams at Brown and the women's squad at Richmond, Kredich has led the Lady Vols to unprecedented success.
Since Christine Magnuson's historic 2007-2008 season, which she began as a relative unknown and finished as a 23-time All-American, four-time Southeastern Conference Champion and Swimmer of the Year, NCAA Champion, Olympic Trials Champion, american record-holder and double silver medalist in Beijing, the attention of the swimming world has begun to focus on the unique technical, teaching and training concepts that Kredich and his assistants have developed over nearly 20 years of coaching.
Magnuson's Olympic success surprised many people, but not anyone who has been part of the program for the past six years, including those who had been present at the first team meeting at Tennessee.
This was when Kredich told the team "We're going to have a program that represents the best in college swimming and diving. This means we will achieve excellence in every facet of the sport, and we will aim for and achieve success at the highest level of competition. This means that this team will be the home of Olympic medalists."
Although in 2005 this was a surprising statement for some of the team to hear, the message came through loud and clear to Magnuson, and to those who have followed. The team goal of having individuals win events at the 2012 Olympic Trials and 2012 Olympic Games is now a central part of the team culture.
Under Kredich's direction the Lady Vols have broken all 19 of Tennessee swimming records, had 23 different athletes garner 148 All-America awards and finished in the top-15 at the NCAA Championships for a UT-record six consecutive seasons.
Last season, seven Big Orange swimmers combined to earn 28 All-America accolades in 13 events at the 2011 NCAA Championships. Of those 28 certificates, 12 were First-Team honors, as Jenny Connolly, Kelsey Floyd and Lindsay Gendron all earned First-Team accolades individually and on relays.
The trio also combined with Martina Moravcikova, to win an SEC Championship in the 400y medley relay at the Southeastern Conference Championships. Connolly was also a standout performer at the league championships, having a record day by taking home gold in the 100y back and 100y fly.
The UT success last season in the pool carried over outside of it, as the Lady Vols were dominant in the academic arena as well. Last season, Tennessee was named a College Swimming Coaches Association Scholar All-America Team by having a team GPA above a 3.00, 20 members of the UT women's swimming program were named to the SEC Winter Academic Honor Roll.
The Lady Vols also had a successful summer circuit, as Jenny Connolly won a gold and a silver medal at the 2011 World University Games. At the Games, she set a meet record in the 50m fly, while just missing her second gold medal in the 100y back, as she finished runner-up. She also took third in the 100y back at the 2011 ConocoPhillips USA Swimming National Championships and was a member of the second-place 4x100 medley relay quartet along with Kelsey Floyd, Lindsay Gendron and Molly Hannis.
In 2009-10, six Lady Vols, including five repeat All-Americans, captured 21 All-America certificates in nine events. As a team, the Big Orange brought back its second consecutive 13th-place finish at the NCAA meet back to Rocky Top.
The 200y medley relay squad of Connolly, Alex Barsanti, Floyd and Michele King set the best relay time in UT history to finish second in the nation.
Freshmen Samara Gelb and Kelsey Floyd both burst onto the scene as well. Gelb set a Lady Vol record in the 200y breast at the SEC Championships and Floyd earned All-America honors in four relay events
In summer 2010, Magnuson won her third straight U.S. title in the 100m fly and current Lady Vols Tricia Weaner, Morgan Farrell, Aleksa Akerfelds, Connolly, Tori Richmond, Kirstyn Colonias, Brooke Watson, Floyd and Breanna Folk all competed at the ConocoPhillips USA National Championships as well.
Along with the All-America accolades and academic honors, UT athletes have earned 43 SEC medals and 13 conference championships under Kredich.
In 2008-09, Kredich guided eight Lady Vols to 20 All-America certificates, as the Big Orange sent a school-record 12 participants to the national championship meet in College Station, Texas, where UT placed 13th. There, the 200y medley relay team of King, Jamie Saffer, Weaner and Connolly became the first relay in school history to place in the top three at the NCAA meet.
King and Saffer also became the second and third Lady Vols to capture SEC individual titles under Kredich, as the Big Orange grabbed a second straight fourth-place finish at the conference championships.
Kredich's fourth season in Knoxville started out with a bang, as the Lady Vols began the season with an 8-0 record in dual meets before narrowly losing to undefeated and then-No.1-ranked Georgia at the Allan Jones Intercollegiate Aquatic Center.
UT was primed for an upset and just barely fell to the Bulldogs in a meet that came down to the last event. Tennessee finished the year 8-2 in duals, including wins over perennial Big Ten powers Indiana and Michigan and conference rivals Kentucky, Arkansas and Vanderbilt. Kredich also was able to send a UT-record 12 athletes to the NCAA Championships at the end of the season.
In the summer of 2009, Kredich trained four athletes who were on the USA Swimming National Team. Magnuson won the 100y fly at World championship trials, King qualified for the World University Games, where she earned a silver medal in the 50 freestyle and gold in the 400y medley relay and Connolly made the USA National A-Team for the second consecutive year.
Kredich was named to the USA's World University Games coaching staff, helping to lead the team to tremendous success in Belgrade, Serbia, where Lady Vol Martina Moravcikova represented her home country of Czech Republic.
In 2008, the Lady Vols placed eighth at the NCAA Championships, as well as fourth in the SEC. UT also went 5-3 in dual meets with all three losses coming against teams ranked in the nation's top three at the time.
In addition to Magnuson's NCAA title, Kredich saw nine other Lady Vols earn All-America honors, as UT grabbed honors in 13 events.
The eighth-place finish at NCAAs, coupled with the 10th-place effort in 2007, gave Tennessee back-to-back outcomes in the top 10 at the national meet for the first time in school history.
The Lady Vols followed consecutive fifth-place conference finishes with a breakthrough fourth-place showing at the 2008 SEC Championships. Magnuson won three individual events and was part of a victorious relay en route to earning the prestigious Commissioner's Trophy, awarded to the female who earned the most points for her team. Akerfelds also was named SEC Freshman of the Year.
K
redich guided Tennessee to a 4-4 dual meet record during the 2006-07 season against some of the nation's top programs, a fifth-place finish at the SEC Championships and a 10th-place position at the NCAA Championships.
For the first time in 11 years, the Lady Vols cracked into the top 10 at the NCAA Championships by scoring in 11 of 15 events they entered. The team brought home 26 All-America certificates for their efforts and set six school records.
The Lady Vols placed fifth for the second straight year at the 2007 SEC Championships and Kredich crowned his first SEC champion when Magnuson snagged first in the 100y fly. She also broke her own school records in the 100y and 200y freestyle, and UT swimmers medaled in four events.
During the 2005-06 season, the first under Kredich's direction, the Lady Vols showed improvement and success by every measure. The team broke 11 of the 19 school records in swimming events. Tennessee sent eight swimmers to the NCAA Championships in 12 events and vaulted from 24th in 2005 to a 12th-place NCAA finish in 2006 while earning 27 All-America honors.
At the SEC Championships, UT swimmers broke five school records as the Big Orange scored in every event contested. The fifth-place finish was a marked improvement over the previous season's seventh-place showing.
The Lady Vols also had a successful dual meet season in Kredich's first year. Tennessee's 5-2 mark - its highest dual meet win total since the 1998-99 campaign - included victories over Louisville, Northwestern and SEC rivals Alabama, South Carolina and Kentucky. A third-place finish at the prominent Purdue Invite helped to highlight the successful 2005-06 regular season.
The Tennessee women also excelled in the classroom in 2005-06, achieving a team GPA of 3.30 for the year, and two of three graduating seniors were awarded prestigious postgraduate scholarships by the SEC.
Kredich was hired as the head coach at Tennessee after dramatically turning around the University of Richmond women's squad. During Kredich's tenure, the Spiders sent their first-ever swimmers to the NCAA Championships, had their first-ever All-Americans, and won their first-ever conference championships. In his four years at Richmond, the Spiders won four Atlantic 10 Championships while Kredich was named conference coach of the year all four years. His Spiders also were selected by the College Swimming Coaches Association of America (CSCAA) as an Academic All-America squad from 2002-04.
Prior to that, at Brown University, he turned a 2-9 women's swimming program in 1992 into Eastern Women's Swimming League Champions in 1996 and 1997. His teams then competed solely in the Ivy League and went on to win the 1998 and 1999 conference crowns. Additionally, he also energized the Brown men's team, which was coming off a 3-8 mark when he took over the team in 1996. He led the Bears to four consecutive winning seasons and four top-five finishes in the Eastern Intercollegiate Swimming League. In the process, he was recognized as the EISL Coach of the Year in 1996 and 1997. He also earned EISL Men's Coach of the Year in 1998.
In his nine seasons with the Bears, he coached 50 all-conference performers, four Honorable Mention All-Americans, and several Olympic Trial qualifiers, Olympic Trial finalists and two Olympic athletes. In the classroom his athletes collectively achieved 12 Academic All-America team awards, one first-team Academic All-America award and several post-graduate scholarships.
Prior to coaching at Brown, Kredich was the assistant men's swimming coach at Harvard from 1991-92. He also has served as an assistant women's swimming coach at Stanford (1990-91) and as a graduate assistant coach for the men's and women's swim teams at Duke (1998-90).
As a standout backstroker at Duke, he garnered All-Atlantic Coast Conference and All-Academic honors and was a seven-time U.S. National qualifier. Kredich received a B.A. in biology from Duke in 1988 and received his M.A. in teaching degree from Duke in 1990.
A native of Durham, N.C., Kredich and his family reside in Knoxville. His wife Kimberley is a choral conductor, artist and advocate for children with disabilities. They have three sons: Benjamin, Miles and Coleman.