Sarah Dunleavy Added As Volunteer Assistant Coach At Tennessee

Courtesy: Tennessee Athletics

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – With more than seven years of assistant coaching experience at the Division I level, Tennessee swimming & diving head coach Matt Kredich announced Monday the addition of Sarah Dunleavy as a volunteer assistant coach.

“We are incredibly fortunate and very excited to bring Sarah onto our coaching staff as a volunteer assistant coach,” said Kredich. “She has tremendous experience, energy and expertise in the sport of swimming, and she is known as an outstanding communicator and relationship builder. Sarah has infectious competitiveness and enthusiasm for excellence in the classroom and in the pool. Tennessee’s student-athletes will benefit tremendously from her presence.”

Most recently, Dunleavy served two years as a recruiting consultant for the Sierra Marlins, a USA Swimming Gold Medal program then coached by newly-hired Tennessee assistant Rob Collins, and various athletes nationwide. With experience as both a collegiate swimmer as well as director of recruiting for multiple nationally-ranked programs, Dunleavy work extensively with athletes, parents and staff to assist with the recruiting process. She’s also been involved with the Fitter Faster Tour, one of the top swim clinics and camps in the country.

Dunleavy’s had success everywhere she’s been during her coaching career, with stops at Cal (2017-19), Pitt (2016-17), Kentucky (2013-16) and Illinois State (2012-13). During her time, she’s coached programs that have been the national runner-up, produced NCAA title winning swimmers and headed recruiting efforts that resulted in signing some of the nation’s top classes.

“I couldn’t be happier to be making the move to Knoxville and working with the staff and team at Tennessee,” said Dunleavy. “The Vols are a premier program in the NCAA, and I feel extremely fortunate to get the opportunity to come back to college swimming in a little bit of a different capacity. I know I am going to learn a ton and grow so much more as a coach in this new endeavor, which is really exciting to me.”

During Dunleavy’s two seasons with the Cal women’s swimming team, the Golden Bears finished as the national runner-up in both 2018 and 2019, won five NCAA events and captured 15 Pac-12 Championship event titles. In 2019, Cal won four events at the NCAA Championship, including three of the five relay events. While there, she coached All-American and Olympic medalist Abbey Weitzeil.

Prior to that, Dunleavy served as director of women’s recruiting and assistant coach at Pitt for the 2016-17 season. During her one campaign, she primarily oversaw workouts for the men’s and women’s breaststrokers. The swimmers broke school records six times and produced an All-American with the highest finish by a Pitt swimmer in a sprint event in 14 years.

Dunleavy spent the previous three seasons at Kentucky as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator, working with the breaststroke and individual medley group, which produced seven school records, five NCAA qualifiers and five Olympic Trials qualifiers. Overall, the Wildcats finished among the top 20 at the NCAA Championships three times and placed two swimmers on the U.S. National team.

At Illinois State from 2012-13, Dunleavy assisted with the sprint and IM groups, and helped the squad set 16 school records and two conference marks.

While at both Pitt and Kentucky, Dunleavy was the liaison with the team’s academic advisor. Kentucky produced the highest GPA among all Division I women’s swimming teams in the spring of 2014 (3.72), and Danielle Galyer received the NCAA Elite 90 Award for having the highest GPA among all participants at the 2016 NCAA Championships. In 2016-17, the Pitt team GPA ranked among the top 20 nationally at 3.35.

As a competitive swimmer, Dunleavy was a team captain and three-time Academic All-Big Ten selection at Purdue from 2008-12. She received the athletic department’s John Wooden Leadership Award as a senior, as well as the swim team’s Cathy Wright-Eger Educational Excellence Award. In high school, Dunleavy competed at various national-level meets and was a 15-time all-state selection.

A native of Bethel Park, Pa., Dunleavy graduated from Purdue in 2012 with her degree in public relations and rhetorical advocacy, minoring in sociology and law & society.