With a new head coach, the Kean Women’s swimming team seeks to build something great

Now in their second season since returning as a program in 2017, the Kean University Women’s swimming team is looking to build a foundation that can help them in the years to come. While not having a team since the 2002-03 season is something that Kean is going to have to overcome, they are making a concerted effort to restore the program.

Head Coach Christopher Swenson looks to build the program up. Photo Courtesy of Larry Levanti.

The first move that Kean made in order to usher in its new era for the program was handing the reins of head coach over from Barbara Perkins to Christopher Swenson. With stops at Princeton, Notre Dame, Saint Peter’s University, Rowan, and Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School, Swenson came to Kean looking forward to the opportunity to shape the women’s swimming program.

“I was honored to be named the head women’s coach at Kean University; it has always been a goal of mine to be a Division III head coach and to build a program from the ground up,” Swenson said. “This university had exactly what I was looking for and I am excited to build a team that will be successful well into the future.”

As a 2005 graduate of Rowan, Swenson was a part of the school’s swimming team where he qualified for the NCAA tournament twice, was named a team MVP, team Rookie of the Year, and was the recipient of the Walter J. Holt Leadership Award. From there, he took his experience as a swimmer and became a graduate assistant coach for Rowan from 2006-08.

Darlene Holmes (junior) represents the lone upperclassman on the team. Photo Courtesy of Larry Levanti.

Swenson served as the acting head coach and an assistant coach at Saint Peter’s University from 2012-14. While there, the Peacocks not only set 64 school records, but they also had the second highest finish at the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) Championships. He also coached three MAAC Swimmers of the Year as well.

As the Director of Operations for the Men’s Swimming and Diving program at the University of Notre Dame, the Fighting Irish not only had the ninth ranked recruiting class while he was there, but three honorable mention All-Americans and a fifth-place finish in the Atlantic Coast Conference too.

Swenson spent one season as an assistant coach with the Boys and Girls Varsity Swimming program at Scotch-Plains-Fanwood High School where he coached the boy’s team to a Sectional Championship and the girl’s team to a Union County Championship in 2016.