Dave Durden takes over Cal Women's Swimming as Acting Director of Cal Swimming
Cal will effectively combine the men's and women's swimming while the investigation into Teri McKeever is ongoing
It will be another busy weekend of action for Cal Olympic sports, especially from the heart of Bear Territory in Berkeley. No.1 Menโs Water Polo (4-0) and Volleyball (3-2) have their home openers. Field Hockey (1-3) hosts a pair of ranked opponents in No.2 North Carolina and No.18 Wake Forest.
Rather than recapping the actions from this past week, I will use this weekโs post to update you on the recently announced reorganization of Cal Womenโs Swimming.
While the lengthy investigation (and legal de-entanglement) into longtime head coach Teri McKeeverโs abusive behavior at the helm of the program is far from over, Cal Aquatics installs stability into its womenโs program by leaning on its menโs program, which just captured the NCAA team national championship in the spring. For the time being, Dave Durden will be the acting Director of Swimming & Diving to oversee a combined program.
Durden will oversee both programs with Matt Bowe serving as associate head coach for the men's swimming program, David Marsh serving as the associate head coach of the women's swimming program, and Jesse Moore serving as an assistant coach for both programs.
Matt Bowe just joined Cal at the end of the last school year from Ohio State after the previous assistant coach Chase Kreitler became the head coach at Pitt. Boweโs arrival in Berkeley also brought Team USA member Hunter Armstrong to the Cal pro group from Ohio State. Armstrong has been the top challenger to Cal alum Ryan Murphy as the top backstroke in the USA.
Kreitler actually was on paternity leave during the spring semester. Durden called upon his mentor David Marsh to help the Cal Men in capturing the NCAA title. Just like Durden (Menโs team for the recent 2020/1 Tokyo Games), Marsh has also served as the head coach for Team USA (Womenโs team in 2016) at the Olympic levels. Marsh also has a long track record of producing Olympians, including โCalympiansโ Kathleen Baker and Anthony Ervin just before they earned Olympic medals in the 2016 Rio Games. Marshโs brings a lot of credibilities to the Cal womenโs program.
Having the unfortunate timing of joining Cal just before the whole Teri McKeever scandal broke out, previous interim Cal womenโs head coach Jesse Moore will serve as an assistant coach for both squads. Cal is currently looking to hire an additional coach to complete the coaching ranks for the 2022-23 school year.
No change is made on the diving front where Pei Lin was another newly announced hire this past year for both women and men.
Dave Durden spoke with SwimSwam about the changes.
It was interesting to hear that it was the pride in Cal Aquatics that led Durden to pick up the responsibility of rescuing the womenโs program. With the rest of the college swimming world looking to poach Cal swimmers who entered the transfer portal en mass after the McKeever story broke, Durden appears to have stopped the bleeding by taking over.
Before the Durden news was announced, Cal womenโs program got some good news when rising junior Isabelle Stadden said that she was staying at Cal after winning the 200 Backstroke national title this summer. In an interview during that meet in Irvine, Stadden spoke about how the combined training over the summer was going well. Stadden will join Cal alum and Calympian Abbey Weitzeil on the recently announced U.S. National Team for the upcoming year.
In addition to Stadden staying, it would appear that the rest of the Cal Bears in the portal will also stay put. Lea Polonsky, Ayla Spitz, and Emma Davidson are Cal scorers at the NCAA who are staying put, based on the lack of announcements to leave. Calโs best swimmer this past season, Izzy Ivey, was always going to stay in Berkeley to graduate by the end of the year. Should she stay to compete for the Golden Bears next spring, Cal women can remain a top-10 program. No official roster nor schedule for the 2022-23 school year has been announced yet.
A Cal Bear who has announced a move is sprinter and relay mainstay Elise Garcia. Garcia will graduate-transfer to USC to pursue a master's degree in their School of Educationโs Marriage and Family Therapy program. Cal also lost the commitment of Canadian Olympian Maggie Mac Neil who was originally going to graduate transfer to Cal from Michigan before opting for LSU.
While the short-term future of Cal Womenโs Swimming looks better, Cal will need to make up ground on the recruiting front to stay near the top of collegiate swimming. Then again, Cal can certainly be a player in the transfer portal to beef up for Spring 2023 given the pedigree of the interim coaching staff.
Hopefully, Cal Aquatics has gotten past the rough water to return to being the crown jewel of Cal Olympic sports.
GO BEARS!