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The Lady Vols finished fourth at the Southeastern Conference Championships, placed eighth at the NCAA Championships and were represented at the 2008 Olympic Games.
For his efforts, Kredich was named the SEC's Co-Head Coach of the Year and got to travel to Beijing to watch one of his athletes, Christine Magnuson, snag two silver medals for the United States swim team.
Kredich was hired on April 30, 2005, to shape the Lady Vol program into one of the nation's elite teams after turning around underperforming programs at the University of Richmond and Brown University. After laying the foundation in his first two seasons at UT, evidence of Tennessee's elite status were found in his third season, not only at the SEC Championships, but at the NCAA Championships and ultimately at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.
At the Olympics, Magnuson placed an exclamation point on the end of her final collegiate season by winning silver medals in the 100m butterfly and the 400m medley relay, setting the American record in both events. Magnuson also won the 100m fly title at the U.S. Olympic Trials, captured the 100y fly NCAA Championship and was named SEC Female Swimmer of the Year in 2008. Under Kredich's guidance, Magnuson, who began taking butterfly seriously only recently, jumped from having the world's 13th fastest time in the 100m fly in 2007 to being the second-best competitor in the world in the event in 2008.
A 23-time All-American, her performances have solidified the Kredich-guided Lady Vol swim team as an elite collegiate program and a legitimate player on the national and international stage.
Even before the Olympics, Tennessee was well represented at national and postseason meets.
Six current Lady Vols and three former UT swimmers competed at the U.S. Olympic Trials. Two incoming freshmen also competed at the Trials, a testament to the program's growing notoriety and success. The highlight was Magnuson winning the 100m fly. Additionally, junior Michele King tied for the U.S. Open championship in the 50m free this past summer.
In Kredich's first three seasons at UT, the program has cemented itself as one of the best in the nation. The UT swimming and diving team enjoyed tremendous success in the classroom, in dual meets, and was at its best in the championship season. During his three-year tenure, Kredich has produced 14 All-Americans at Tennessee, who earned 79 All-America certificates.
Kredich's third season in Orange and White was his most successful yet. In addition to an eighth-place finish at the NCAA Championships, as well as fourth-place in the SEC, the Lady Vols also went 5-3 in dual meets with all three losses coming against teams ranked in the top-three at the time.
The eighth-place finish at NCAAs coupled with the 10th-place finish in 2007, gave Tennessee back-to-back finishes in the top-10 at the national meet for the first time in school history. Magnuson, who became only the second Lady Vol swimmer to win an individual NCAA title, led nine athletes to 26 All-America certificates as UT finished with 179.50 points and set four school records. The Lady Vols finished No. 7 in the final dual meet CSCAA rankings.
The Lady Vols followed back-to-back fifth-place conference finishes with a breakthrough fourth-place finish at the 2008 SEC Championship on Feb. 20-23 in Tuscaloosa, Ala. UT scored 477 points and 13 school records fell over the course of four days. 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. Tennessee medaled in nine different events, five swimmers earned first-team All-SEC and Aleksa Akerfelds was named SEC Freshman of the Year.
In the regular season, UT began the season 3-0 in dual meets behind wins over Louisville and SEC rivals No. 17 Kentucky and South Carolina. The Orange and White also defeated Big Ten foes Northwestern and Indiana. Tennessee's only dual meet losses came against No. 1 Auburn, No. 2 Georgia and No. 7 Florida, and all were close meets. The Lady Vols also competed at non-scoring meets, the Hoosierland Open and the Bulldog Invitational, to wrap-up another grueling schedule.
With a year at the helm under his belt in the 2006-07 season, Kredich guided Tennessee to a 4-4 dual meet record against some of the nation's top programs, a fifth-place finish at the SEC Championships and 10th at the NCAA Championships meet in Minneapolis, Minn.
For the first time in 11 years, the Lady Vols cracked into the top 10 at the NCAA Championships by scoring in 11 (200y IM, three-meter diving, 100y fly, 100y free, 200y back, 200y breast and all five relays) of 15 events they entered for a 127-point total. The team brought home 26 All-America certificates for their efforts and set six school records.
Kredich and company took a No. 14 national ranking into the SEC Championships held in Lexington, Ky., Feb. 7-10. Tennessee's 349.5 points earned it a fifth-place finish at the meet for the second straight year. Kredich crowned his first SEC champion when Magnuson took over the top spot as the fastest Lady Vol in the 100y butterfly. She also broke her own school records in the 100y and 200y freestyle as well, and UT swimmers medaled in the 800y free relay, 200y IM, 100y fly and 100y free at the conference championship meet.
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. Lady Vol swimmers excelled in a wide variety of disciplines as the Orange and White tallied points in 11 different events. The team total of 104 points was good enough for a 12th-place showing and was the highest scoring output for the team since 1997.
At the SEC Championships, held in Knoxville Feb. 15-18, 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 seventh place finish one year earlier.
The Lady Vols also had a successful dual meet season under Kredich's guidance. 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 prestigious 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, the highest in team history. Two of three graduating seniors were awarded prestigious postgraduate scholarships by the Southeastern Conference.
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.
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