Ohio University assistant women’s swimming coach Ben Rayner has resigned his position and will leave swimming to pursue a career in civil engineering, he told SwimSwam today.
“I have made the difficult decision to leave coaching and to pursue a career in civil engineering and to be closer to my family,” Rayner said in confirming his decision. “I have enjoyed my time coaching at Ohio University and I am thankful for the experiences I have had and for the opportunity to work with such a great group of young women. I wish everybody there the very best of luck in the future.”
Rayner spent one season as an assistant under new Ohio head coach Rachel Komisarz-Baugh. Prior to that, he was an assistant at Virginia Tech during their historic ACC title-winning season. He came to the program after an All-American career at Division II power Delta State.
The Ohio women finished 6 out of 8 teams at the 2015 Mid-American Conference Championships in February. That tied 2014 and 1981 as the lowest conference finishes since the first MAC Championship meet in 1981. The team’s season-highlight was sophomore Laura Dawson, who won both the 200 fly (1:55.23) and 200 back (1:58.13) in an impressive final day of competition and just missed qualifying for the NCAA Championships.
And Dorsey is out at Arizona State.