Marshall has hired Phoebe Campbell to lead the charge for the women’s swimming & diving team as the program looks to move forward from what has already been a tumultuous offseason. She comes from the University of Akron, where she spent one season and helped lead the Zips to a Mid-American Conference championship.
Campbell replaces Ian Walsh, who left to become the head swimming coach at Pitt earlier this month.
Last season, Campbell was hired as the assistant coach at Akron, which is 4 hours due north across the Ohio-West Virginia border. Akron won their fifth-consecutive conference title and 12th in 13 seasons.
Akron sent two swimmers, Felicia Klintemar and Claire Cox, to the NCAA Championships. Klintemar earned Honorable Mention All-America honors with a 9th-place finish in the 100 fly – an event where Akron has historically been very strong.
Prior to that, she spent two years as an assistant coach at the University of New Mexico, a season as a volunteer assistant with the men’s team at Texas A&M, and a year as an assistant at NCAA D3 program Vassar College.
Campbell’s statement thanked her mentors at many of those prior positions.
I would like to acknowledge all of the positive influences and mentors I have had over the years who have given me the opportunities to grow in this profession,” Campbell said. “I would like to thank Brian Peresie (Akron), Naya Higashijima (UNM), Jay Holmes (Texas A&M), and Lisl Prater-Lee (Vassar College). Sharing the pool deck and learning from these fantastic coaches has given me the knowledge and skills necessary to lead this program with confidence and integrity.”
Campbell was selected as a CSCAA Coaches Academy member in 2025 and as an ASCA 30-Under-30 Award winner in 2023.
As an athlete, Campbell was a team captain at NCAA D2 program Henderson State. She last swam for the Reddies in 2016 and was a breaststroke and IM specialist.
“Phoebe brings a diverse background and experience from multiple levels of collegiate athletics, along with an outstanding reputation as a recruiter, organizer, and relationship builder,” athletic director Gerald Harrison said. “Her energy, passion, temperament, and leadership style make her the right coach to lead Marshall Swimming and Diving into an exciting new era. She has a clear vision for developing champions in the pool, in the classroom, and in our community, and we are excited to watch her build upon the strong foundation of this program.”
Those are just the latest stops on a deep and diverse resume that includes club work as a head site coach in Arkansas, along with a role as aquatics director; a grad assistant gig at Ball State; and a number of other club positions in Arkansas.
Marshall Catchup
Marshall finished 8th out of 9 teams at the 2026 American Conference Championship meet, their first year in the conference.
In February, days before the team’s conference championship meet, the team was informed that they were being cut. A few days later, the news was made official.
That was not the end of the story, though: a lawsuit claiming that Marshall was in violation of Title IX’s three-prong test forced the university to reinstate the program. According to federal data, about 57% of Marshall’s undergraduates are women, but before the cut, about 60% of Marshall’s athletics participants were men.
In spite of those challenges, several members of the team had standout performances, including Lauren McNamara, who won the conference title in the 200 fly in 1:58.16. McNamara returns this year as a rising junior.
The team did lose several standouts to transfers among the turmoil, though. School record holder Elyse Wood left for Virginia Tech and Isabelle Cameron announced her transfer to East Carolina.
Wood was the team’s top scorer at the AAC Championships with 79 individual points.
The team only returns 3 of its top 8 individual scorers from last season. Besides McNamara (66.5 points), they also bring back Molly Warner (76 points) and Abby Adams (22 points).
