NCAA Division I school Stony Brook University has promoted Mark Anderson as its new head coach of women’s swimming & diving. Anderson, a 2013 graduate of Stony Brook, was the interim head coach in 2021-2022.
Anderson was promoted to interim head coach in September, replacing former head coach Kerry Smith. Smith was named the head coach at LaSalle University in Philadelphia in July.
“Mark did an outstanding job as our interim head coach and absolutely earned the opportunity to lead the team forward on a permanent basis. Our team showed tremendous progress this past season, and I have every confidence that our women will continue to thrive under Mark’s leadership,” said Director of Athletics Shawn Heilbron.
Anderson led the team through a tumultuous season, the latest in a run of a number of tumultuous seasons for the Seawolves. The team finished 4-2 in dual meets, but were prohibited from competing at the America East Championships. That decision came because of a conference rule that withdraws conference championship eligibility for schools that plan to leave the conference: Stony Brook will join the CAA next season.
The team raced instead at the ECAC Championships, where they finished 6th and broke four school records – including multiple that were more than a decade old. SwimSwam’s Swimulator tool projects that Stony Brook’s season-best times would have placed them 5th out of 6 teams at the America East Championships (swimming only).
The 2020-2021 season came with the chaos of COVID, and not long before that, in the 2017-2018 season, Stony Brook dismissed its coaches and didn’t finish its season after allegations of misconduct.
Anderson graduated from Stony Brook in 2013. He was a member of the varsity team there; before his graduation, the school put both men’s and women’s programs on indefinite “continuing competitive hiatus” after funding was pulled from pool renovations. The men’s team was never brought back, while the women’s team didn’t return until 2017-2018.
Now, with Anderson back, the school will seek some stability.
Besides his duties at Stony Brook, he is also the head coach at the Three Village Swim Club in New York, where he has worked since 2012.
“I am incredibly honored and thankful for the opportunity to become Stony Brook’s swimming and diving’s head coach. This season was full of adversity for our program but the team grew closer and closer as the year went on. I was incredibly proud of how we ended our year down at ECACs in Annapolis setting four program records in one weekend. We set the tone for our future and we showed ourselves that this is just the beginning of something special. Thank you to our Athletic Director Shawn Heilbron for believing in me and allowing me to continue to grow this program into what we know it can be! I could not be more excited for the future of our swimming and diving team. Go Seawolves!!” said Anderson.
CollegeSwimming has him listed as a four year swimmer at Stony Brook and then a four year diver at Texas. It appears he’s THAT talented!
Great!!!!
Let’s go!!!!!! 💪