Arizona has added Caitlin DeNise to its staff as an assistant coach, the school announced on Thursday. DeNise fills an open position on the staff previously held by Lauren Sullivan who departed the program to join the women’s program at Brown.
“We are excited to welcome Caitlin and her husband Wes to the Wildcat family,” head coach Ben Loorz said. “Coach DeNise is a veteran coach with a great breadth and depth of experience. From the college to club level, assistant coach to head coach, she brings a great base of knowledge and a proven track record of treating athletes well.”
DeNise arrives after most recently spending time at Lewis & Clark College. She began as an assistant coach at Lewis & Clark College for two seasons before being interim head coach for the 2023-2024 season. She then earned the full-time head coaching position and was the head coach the last two seasons. During her time at Lewis & Clark, the team swam to 13 school records and 60 all-time top 10 times.
Prior to her time at Lewis & Clark, she was an assistant coach at Cal State Easy Bay from 2018–2021, a senior assistant coach with the Pleasanton Seahawks, a USA Swimming club team, from 2016–2018, and an assistant coach at University of the Pacific from 2015–16.
DeNise spent her collegiate career at Cal State East Bay where she was a Division II NCAA Finalist and earned the school’s Female Athlete of the Year award.
The Arizona men and women finished 2nd at the 2026 Big 12 Championships. The men went on to finish 27th with 35 points while the women finished 29th with 21 points at the 2026 NCAA Championships.
