The CSCAA has announced its official award winners for the 2023 NCAA Division I Men’s Swimming & Diving Championships.
Cal head coach Dave Durden was named Men’s Swim Coach of the Year, while Indiana’s Drew Johansen was named Men’s Dive Coach of the Year.
Arizona State sophomore Leon Marchand was named the Swimmer of the Year, while Ohio State senior Lyle Yost was named the Diver of the Year.
Awards are decided based on a nationwide vote of CSCAA-member Division I head swimming coaches and diving coaches.
Dave Durden won Swim Coach of the Year after leading Cal to its 8th all-time title, including the 6th of his tenure. He was the head coach of the 2011, 2012, 2014, 2019, 2022, and 2023 teams.
Durden has won this award 7 times: after each of his NCAA Championships, plus in 2010, when Cal finished as runners-up.
The team won the NCAA title in spite of being runners-up at the Pac-12 Championships. SwimSwam’s research shows that the 2023 Cal Golden Bears are the 11th team in history to pull that off.
Drew Johansen won Dive Coach of the Year after Indiana divers scored 104 points as part of Indiana’s 4th-place finish in the team standings. That was the most diving points scored by any school at NCAAs by a significant margin: Ohio State was next with 71.5 points.
The Indiana divers’ exploits included an NCAA title on 3-meter from Olympian Andrew Capobianco and an NCAA title on platform from sophomore Tyler Carlson.
Johansen won this award one other time, in 2018.
Leon Marchand, the French-born Arizona State sophomore, was the clear choice for Swimmer of the Year after one of the most electrifying NCAA performances we’ve ever seen. He won three races, obliterating NCAA and US Open Records in each, and expanded the boundaries of what’s deemed possible in swimming.
That is Marchand’s 2nd award in as many seasons of collegiate swimming.
Lyle Yost was named the Diver of the Year after a big upset win on 1-meter. He was 5th in that event at last year’s NCAA Championship, and with a huge score of 443.95, won this year’s title over Capobianco.
That is Yost’s first award, and Ohio State’s first since 1988 (they’ve won 17 times in history as the dominant diving program in the country from the early years of NCAA swimming & diving).
that naked man in the background of this pic is giving off Hereditary vibes
Best photo bomb ever!
A great and obvious choice for COTY. One could make an argument for Coaches Bowman, Looze and Marsh. While it would upset the people with a grudge, I prefer Durden/Marsh as Co-Coaches of the Year!
Has an assistant coach ever gotten coach of the year?
Could have been Ray looze if they figured out day 1 …. Indiana really stepped up this year
Hafnoui would have been huge help in 500/1650 hopefully next year but losing Mathias will hurt same way. Cal depth is very good especially last day. Congrats
Bowman should have won.
I do not agree, I am not questioning that Bowman is a good coach but he was very lucky to come twice in his career across super talented swimmers in Phelps and Marchand. I do believe Marchand would do great if he ended up in Texas or California as well.
It’s very unlikely Phelps would have had the same success with someone else.
Marchand was good before Bowman but nowhere near where he’s at now. Wasn’t he like 4:09-4:10 LCM IM before Bowman and 1 year later is 4:04. And we all think he’ll be even faster this summer.
It’s either one hell of a coincidence that he’s coached these two studs or he had a lot to do with each improving.
Remember Leon chose Bowman
He could have gone elsewhere but didn’t
Marchand made the right choice and it’s showing
>lucky
I would call it coaching skill. I recognize how far Marshand has come under Bowman to make him the most dominating male NCAA swimmer in the last 20 years.
I also give him credit for resurrecting a moribund program, this year’s team season record and winning the Pac-12 title against the eventual national champs.
I think Durden is a superlative coach and Cal is extremely lucky to have him. No disrespect meant to him. But I think it is harder to elevate a program from almost nothing than it is to sustain excellence as Durden has done. It’s a tough vote but I would have given this one to Bowman.
Ya a coach just luckily develops the 2 best 4 IMers of all time. dumb comment
While I turned in my union card 10 years ago and no longer have a vote, IMO, the full body of work, including improvement and data outlined below, supports Bowman, the ASU team & staff being recognized as the 2023 NCAA Swimming Coach of the Year:
2022
ASU
6th @ NCAA’s w/236 pts, 12 athletes (including Marchand) – tied highest finish ever
3rd @ PAC-12’s w/652 pts
Dual meet loss to Cal
Cal
1st @ NCAA’s w/487.5 pts, 18 athletes
1st @ PAC-12’s w/853 pts
Dual meet win over ASU
2023
ASU
2nd @ NCAA’s w/430 pts, 16 athletes (including Marchand) – highest finish ever
1st @ PAC-12’s w/ 897.5 pts –… Read more »
After reading your insightful narrative, I agree! Imagine if Coaches Bowman and Marsh were to work together!!??
Very effective, Greg.
Key to me for 2023 Coach of Year:
Cal scored 5.5 points less in 2023 than in 2022.
ASU scored 194 points more in 2023 than in 2022.
Marchand was great both years but only increased his individual scoring from 57 to 60, yet ASU increased its year over year improvement by 191 aside from Leon’s individual event increase.
… next year …
Marchand is still stoked, hungry, and team oriented and I believe his teammates are too.
I have been thinking about this actually. Marchand has done everything that a man can do in one NCAA championships. What is there to motivate him for the next cycle when you’ve done it all? Is it all about going for that team title?
Olympics.
First he loves the team atmosphere, and has found a new home away from home at ASU. Second he has the coach who has developed his swimming skills to the point where he, already an Olympic level IMer, took 6 seconds off his LCM 400IM time in one year. Bob Bowman is one of if not the best LCM IM coaches in the world. (Don’t take my opinion ask Chase K) Conclusion: Leon would crazy to mess with that formula that has given him such success. By the way Leon is also an academic all American this year.
I wonder what criteria the voters use. Best improvement over seed? Best results? Highest finish? The improvement curve for the ASU program is insane, and a runner-up finish, knocking Texas out of the top 2 for the first time in 9 years, all seems to add up to coach of the year. Then again, Cal won because Durden convinced guys who were ready to leave to come back for another championship. That recruiting/management is impressive coaching. I bet people also wanted to reward him for doing it while taking on the women’s program. Idk. I would have voted for Bowman, but what do I know.
Graciously and well said on many levels, IU Swammer, especially in light of the fact that IU’s Ray Looze lead a group that may have been closest to their max performance, just without the depth of either Cal or ASU. Just 0.09 more on the 4×100 Free Relay would have moved them past Texas into 3rd.
Bowman won the dual meet but Durden won the trophy!
Sounds like sour grapes. Would you tell your AD that beating the defending National Champions in a dual meet is not important? Of course not. Every meet in college counts.
Coach Bowman has proved that he is a superb coach in both SCY and LCM. Proof of this, outside of the records of Michael and Leon, is how many pro Olympic medal holders are currently training with him. Remember pro swimmers can and will choose the coach that best fits their training requirements.
Leon is so dominant he swept the diving events as well as his swimming events
He really is the swimmer and diver of all time
Full of diving
Good question to pose to the swimming historians: I assume that there has been at least one combo swimmer/diver who has at some point scored in both at NCAAs, maybe back in the 1930s or 40s, perhaps scoring on a relay. It would be fun to find that out.