Washington College Men's Swimming

Lessard now serves as Assistant Athletic Director, Aquatics Director, and Senior Woman Administrator.  Lessard served as womens head coach for 26 seasons and as mens head coach for 25. She finished her coaching career with an impressive dual-meet won-loss record of 357-209-1 between the mens and womens swim teams at the College, including a perfect 12-0 womens record during the 2001-02 season and a perfect 10-0 mens record this past winter.  Her overall record includes a 204-104 record as womens coach and a 153-105-1 mark as mens coach.  Under Lessards direction, Washington College swimmers earned a total of 26 All-America or All-America honorable mention designations and were named Most Outstanding Performer at Centennial Conference Championship meets eight times. She also coached at NCAA Division III Championship meets during 15 of her years coaching at the College and was named the Centennial Conference Mens Swimming Coach of the Year in 2014.  Lessards swimmers were strong in the classroom; her teams were routinely awarded with Scholar All-America recognition. During Lessards tenure, the Shoremen and Shorewomen swim teams also became involved in numerous community service projects including: a triathlon for cancer, an adopt-a-family-for Christmas program, the Special Olympics, and a Learn to Swim program for third-graders. Due to their work with Special Olympics, the swim teams were recognized with the inaugural Competitors Challenge Award at the Colleges annual Athletics Awards Ceremony in May, given to a team for an outstanding community service project.  A 1982 graduate of Penn State, Lessard also holds a Masters Degree from the College. She was inducted into the Colleges Athletic Hall of Fame in 2006. 

James Koval was announced as the head coach of the men's and women's swimming programs in May of 2025. In Koval's first season at Washington College, both teams earned a medal at the Centennial Conference Championships and had six program records set, four on the men and two on the women's side. Before coming to Washington College, Koval served as head coach of the Chatham University men’s and women’s swimming and diving programs from 2023 to 2025, growing the rosters of both programs while increasing their overall competitiveness.  Koval’s time at Chatham produced five individual Presidents Athletic Conference champions, and he was named 2025 PAC Women’s Swim Coach of the Year after the Cougar women nearly doubled their conference championship points total from the year prior.  Prior to Chatham, Koval served as the assistant swim coach at Carnegie Mellon University from 2021-23. During his time with the Tartans, CMU swimmers and divers combined to set 27 new school records, and 2023 was the first year in program history that both the Tartan men and women each placed in the top 15 at Nationals.   Before his first collegiate coaching stint at Carnegie Mellon, Koval worked for five years at various clubs and high schools in western Pennsylvania, including Seneca Valley Swim Club, the Uniontown Area YMCA, and Laurel Highlands High School.  Koval is originally from Charleston, South Carolina, where he began his swimming career in his youth and also had his first taste of coaching with the local summer swim league. He attended West Virginia University, where he specialized in long-distance freestyle, achieving an NCAA B cut in the 1650 freestyle in 2017.  As a senior in 2018, Koval was named the Big 12 Conference Scholar-Athlete of the Year for men’s swimming and diving, and as of 2025, he still ranks among the top five performers in WVU school history in both the 1000 and 1650 freestyle.  Koval graduated from WVU with a bachelors' degree in chemical engineering in 2018, and with a masters' degree in the same in 2020 before deciding to pursue a career in coaching. 

Harris was named head men's and women's swim coach at Washington College in June 2016. Harris joined the Washington College swimming coaching staff for the 2012-13 academic year and was elevated to associate head coach in 2015. During his tenure as an assistant coach, the swim teams enjoyed a great deal of success both in the pool and in recruiting. The men's team, especially, reached new heights, going 28-2 in dual meets during a three-year period which culminated with an unbeaten 10-0 record in 2015-16. Harris turned in an outstanding career swimming four years at Kenyon College, helping the Lords win their 27th, 28th, 29th, and 30th NCAA Division III Team Championships. He won four NCAA Division III individual championships, finishing first in both butterfly events as a junior and senior, and was a part of 11 different national-championship relays. He was voted his team's Most Valuable Swimmer and served as team captain as a senior. Harris qualified for, and competed in, the 100-meter butterfly at the 2008 USA Olympic Trials and competed in the 100 and 200 butterfly events at the 2009 World Championship Trials. Following his graduation from Kenyon, Harris worked in sales in Boston for two years while also volunteering with three local college swimming programs and coaching a new club team in the area. He then returned to Maryland and taught at DeMatha Catholic, his high school alma mater, for one year and worked with club and neighborhood swim teams. Harris, who has been swimming since he was 10 years old, earned a B.A. in English from Kenyon in 2009 and his M.A. in English from Washington College in 2015.

Dolben most recently served as an assistant men's and women's swim coach at King's College in Pennsylvania. His coaching experience also includes three years as the head coach at Kanakadea Valley Aquatic Club in Alfred, N.Y.  Dolben swam collegiately at Alfred University for four years, winning a conference championship in the 100 breaststroke in 57.33 as a senior and helping the Saxons to a team conference title as a freshman. He also swam on the conference championship-winning 400 medley relay as a sophomore. A native of Rye, N.H., Dolben earned a B.A. in English from Alfred in 2012. He also completed a minor in Communications.