University of Utah Men's Swimming

Dykstra's first year. Utah was ranked in the top 25 throughout the season with both teams finishing in the top 35 at the NCAA Championships. The Utah men started out the season with an upset win over 12th-ranked Arizona. Highlights from Dykstra's inaugural year include Kersten Merry becoming the first female diver in Utah history to earn All-America honors at NCAA's. She finished ninth on platform. Also earning All-America honors was Traycie Swartz in the 100 free (11th), Colleou in the 200 breast (9th) and Josiah Purss on the one-meter (9th). Utah had nine individual qualifiers and eight relay-only qualifiers sent to the NCAA Championships in 2013-14. At the Pac-12 Championships, Soedel (100 free) and Kiraly (1,650 free) won the first-ever Pac-12 men's swimming titles in school history. Soedel's season-best time in the 100 free of 41.97 was the fourth best in the country in the event this season. Kiraly broke a 25-year old school record in the 200 fly. For the women, Colleou was the top collegiate competitor in the 200 breast event at the US Short Course Nationals, finishing third. Dykstra, a two-time Sun Belt Conference Coach of the Year, spent seven years as the head women's coach at North Texas before coming to Utah. Prior to North Texas he spent six years as the associate head men's and women's coach at Washington from 2001-06. He was also a four-year swimmer for the Huskies. Dykstra guided North Texas to a runner-up finish at the 2013 Sun Belt Conference Championships, the best finish in school history earning co-Coach of the Year honors. Kimmy Phillips became the first swimmer in North Texas' 15-year history to qualify for the NCAA Championships in 2013. The Mean Green achieved a No. 4 final ranking in the 2013 CollegeSwimming.com mid-major poll, the highest ranking in school history. Dykstra, who was also the Sun Belt Conference Coach of the Year in 2008, led the program to four consecutive third-place finishes from 2009-12. The Mean Green set several school records during his tenure at the school. In the classroom, North Texas received College Swimming Coaches Association of America (CSCAA) Scholar All-America status every semester from 2007-12. The team posted a 3.62 team GPA in the fall of 2012, the highest among all NCAA Division I swimming and diving teams.  As an associate head coach at Washington, Dykstra helped the Huskies to 19th and 25th-place finishes at the 2003 and 2004 NCAA Championships. In 1999 and 2000, Dykstra served as a graduate assistant coach at Tennessee. The Volunteers finished in the top 10 at the NCAA Championships both years, during which time he also assisted in coaching an Olympic gold medal winner and a world record holder.

Johnson also started a Masters group while at Bluefish and worked under USA National Team coach and Bluefish owner, Chuck Batchelor, who has led many swimmers to national and international success. Johnson grew up swimming for Schroeder YMCA in Brown Deer, Wis., and was a Junior National qualifier as well as part of the team that captured the YMCA Spring National Women's Championship in 1999. She later went on to coach Senior, Age Group, and Masters groups at Schroeder from 2004-2006. In the summer of 2006, Johnson coached at the Paralympic World Champ Trials with one of the Schroeder athletes. A 2005 graduate of Iowa State University, Johnson received Academic All-Big 12 honors and graduated 4.0 Summa Cum Laude with a degree in Marketing. She enjoys staying active through swimming, biking, and snowboarding as well as other hobbies such as playing guitar and writing. © 2016 University of Utah Athletics |

Persson works specifically with the sprinters and in the past three years, he has coached five student-athletes to school-record times and 12 top-10 all-time performances for the Utes. He was instrumental in helping Nick Soedel become the first Ute to ever medal in the Pac-12 Championships (Bronze in 2013) and earn Utah's second indiviudal champioship with his first-place finish in the 100 free (2014) as well. He also had a hand in Utah earning its first-ever Pac-12 Champion after recruiting Bence Kiraly, who won the 1,650 freestyle in 2014 as well. Persson has competed against the highest levels of international swimming, including the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, where he was a member of the fifth-place 4x100 free relay and finished 11th in the 4x100 medley relay. Persson was a part of the European champion 4x100 free relay in 2008 and the bronze medalist squad in 2010. He also was a finalist at the 2005 World Championships in the 4x100 free relay. He remains a Swedish record-holder and the No. 2 sprint freestyler in the history of Sweden. He won more than 10 national championships in Sweden. During his collegiate career, Persson set seven school records at the University of Tennessee, where he was an All-American and team captain for the Volunteers. In the classroom, Persson obtained a Master of Business Administration, Master of Science in Sports Studies and a Bachelor of Business Administration from UT and also served as a graduate assistant on the coaching staff of the 2011 Southeastern Conference Coach of the Year, John Trembley. He was an Academic All-American and SEC Academic Honor Roll selection in 2007 and 2008. Persson served a graduate assistant at Tennessee from 2009-2011 and as head coach at Tennessee Aquatics from May to July 2011 where he worked primarily with the sprint group. Persson helped expand Tennessee's international recruiting network by communicating with student-athletes, coaches and parents in 16 different countries. Persson has already put his education into practice as he has conducted contract negotiations with the Swedish Olympic Committee and a top-five swim team in Sweden.

Lowrys first season as Head Distance Coach, she led a strong crew to the Pac-12 Championships.   During her second season at Utah, Bence Kiraly finished fourth in the 1650 and 11th in the 500 freestyle at the NCAA Championships.  Kiralys 1650 was the highest placing swim for the Utes in more than two decades. In her first season with the Utes, Lowry helped coach Kiraly to Utah's first-ever Pac-12 individual championship in the 1650 free, which he also qualified for the NCAA Championships. She was also instrumental in guiding Sami Zuch to the NCAA Championships in the 1650 free, as well as her setting new school records in both the 1000 and 1650 free events.   Prior to her move to Salt Lake City, Lowry was an assistant coach at North Texas for three years, where she helped the Mean Green rewrite 36 different school records and capture a second-place finish at the 2013 Sun Belt Conference Swimming and Diving Championships.  Under Lowry's tutelage in her final season at UNT, Kimmy Phillips became the first Mean Green swimmer to qualify for the NCAA Championships, where she took 26th in the 1650 freestyle (16:19.26) and 52nd in the 500 freestyle (4:48.61). Before Phillips, Catia Weickgenant broke the school's 500 Freestyle record four times, as well as setting the Sun Belt Conference record twice, the Mizzou Invite record, and the conference-meet record. Weickgenant also won a Sun Belt weekly award and took gold at the SBC Championships in the 500 Freestyle.  A native of Hailey, Idaho, Lowry competed for the University of Denver, where she was one of the most accomplished swimmers in the history of the SBC. She qualified for the NCAA Championships as a senior in the 400 IM and the 1650 Freestyle for the Pioneers and was named the SBC's Most Outstanding Female Swimmer in 2008-09. While at Denver, Lowry set school records in the 400 IM (4:12.99), 1650 Freestyle (16:25.85), 1000 Freestyle (9:55.80), and was a member of the record-breaking 800 Freestyle Relay team.  Lowry is also very involved in the sport of open water swimming, taking multiple athletes to the USA Swimming Open Water National Championships and coaching at the USA Swimming National Open Water Camps. Lowry earned a bachelor's degree in management from the University of Denver in 2009, and earned her master's degree in higher education from North Texas in May 2012. She also served as a Student-Athlete Affairs Coordinator at UNT where she was the academic advisor for the men's and women's golf teams during the 2012-13 academic year.  © 2016 University of Utah Athletics |

Aleksa made the move to Salt Lake City following a volunteer stint at Ohio State, where he also coached the OSU swim club. Prior to working with the Buckeyes squad, Aleksa spent two seasons at Motor City Aquatics in Bloomfield Hills, Mich., where he primarily worked with the senior and national groups. A University of Chicago alum, Aleksa was a four-year letterwinner for the Maroons swim team from 2008-2012. Aleksa finished his four-year career with the Maroons, leaving with five school records and having also won the Mary Jean Mulvaney Award for having the highest student-athlete GPA. Aleksa remains inside the schools all-time top-10 performance lists in both the 50 free and 100 free events. © 2016 University of Utah Athletics |

Marschner and the Utah divers in 2015 as both Jacob Crayne and Jasmine Matkovic qualified for the NCAA Championships. Crayne had a highly productive season, collecting a pair of top-five finishes at both the Pac-12 Championships (3rd, one-meter; 4th, three-meter) and at the NCAA Zone E Diving Championships (3rd, three-meter; 5th, one-meter) before parlaying those performances into an All-American effort at the NCAA Championships in the one-meter. Crayne was the Pac-12 Conference Diver of the Month in November and set a new school record in the three-meter with a score of 438.95 at the Pac-12 Championships. Meanwhile, Matkovic donned a top-10 finish at the Pac-12 Championships as she placed seventh overall in the platform. She then went on to record a seventh-place finish at the NCAA Zone E Diving Championships and qualified for her first-ever NCAA Champioships event. In 2014, Marschner helped guide Josiah Purss to his second All-American honor after he finished ninth overall in the one-meter springboard at the NCAA Championships. He was also inspirational in guiding Kersten Merry to a ninth place finish at the NCAA Championships and setting a new school record in the platform event. Under Marschner's tutelage, Utah became just one of 10 schools in the nation to have both a male and female All-American diver in the last year. Under Marschner, Crayne set a new school record in the one-meter springboard event at the NCAA Zone Diving Championships and was then named an alternate for the NCAA Championships. He led his squad to five top-eight finishes at the Pac-12 Championships, which were highlighted by Merry's third-place finish on the tower and Purss' third-place finish in the 1-meter springboard events. He also guided Amanda Casillas to a seventh-place finish on tower at the Pac-12 Championships, which ranks second best by a freshman. In 2013, Marschner led Purss to his first All-American honor and him becoming just the second male diver in Utah history to qualify for the NCAA Championships and Utah's first All-American diver since 2006. He has led 11 different divers to the NCAA Zone E Diving Championships with six athletes earning at least one top-10 finish at Zones. The Utah men were second in scoring at the Pac-12 Championships in 2012 and 2013. The Utah divers experienced one of the best seasons in Utah history during the 2012-13 campaign. In addition to finishing 16th on the one-meter at the NCAA Championships to earn Honorable Mention All-America honors, Purss broke the school record in the platform dive at the Zone Diving Championships. He finished fourth in both events at the Zone meet. Merry was one of only two divers at the Zone meet to place in the top-10 in all three disciplines and was the first alternate for the NCAA Championships. Five of the six Utah divers at the Zone meet qualified for finals on at least one event. At the 2013 Pac-12 Championships, divers had five top-eight finishes, highlighted by a fourth-place finish on the one-meter from Merry. Caleb Herrick and Merry both earned Pac-12 Diver of the Month awards in December, the first to earn the award since the Utes joined the Pac-12. During the 2011-12 season, Utah's first in the Pac-12, Marschner led the divers to four top-10 finishes and three top-five finishes at the Pac-12 Diving Championships. Nelson Foo finished third on the platform, which was the first Pac-12 podium finish for any athlete in Utah's history. At the NCAA Zone E Diving Championships, the Utes snagged three top-10 spots. In 2010-11, Marschner coached Queenie Yu to the Mountain West Conference platform championship. Ellis Walters and Foo each won Mountain West Conference Diver of the Week honors and were selected to the All-MWC team. All five members of the Utah diving team grabbed top-eight finishes at the MWC Championships with four divers placing in the top-20 at the Zone Diving Championships. While attending Louisville, Marschner was a four-time runner-up at the Conference USA Championships and qualified for the 2003 and 2004 NCAA Zone Diving Championships. He also served as a team captain. He graduated from Louisville in 2005 with a B.A. in political science and a B.S. in justice administration. Following graduation, Marschner worked in multiple high diving shows around the world from 2005-07 in Dalian, China; Metz, France and Lake George, NY. His performances included 70 foot high-dives, fire-dives and other stunts at various theme parks. Prior to being hired at Utah, Marschner served as the head diving coach at the University of New Orleans from 2008-10. At the time of his hiring he was tabbed to be the first diving coach at New Orleans since 1992 and was charged with restarting a dormant program that had also been devastated by Hurricane Katrina. While at UNO, he coached two divers to the NCAA Zone D meet. His divers finished in the top-eight 11 times in two years at the Sun Belt Conference Championships, including two silver medals in his final year. From 2004-07, Marschner coached with the Louisville Area Diving club team (currently Cardinal Dive Club) as the head coach of the high school group and the assistant coach for the Junior Olympic group. While in college, Marschner spent time as the head diving coach at the Owl Creek Country Club. Richard lives in Salt Lake City with his wife, May. They enjoy running marathons, skiing, camping, hiking, fishing, and cliff diving.