The University of Florida swimming & diving program is moving on from assistant coach Kristen Murslack, a school spokesperson confirmed to SwimSwam Wednesday.
Murslack served as an assistant coach with the Gators for the last four seasons, having been hired in May 2021 after two seasons as an assistant at Pitt.
The spokesperson said the program is “focused on the next steps with continuing to move the program forward” following Murslack’s departure.
“We are grateful for Coach Murslack’s work she put into the program,” the spokesperson said.
Although Murslack is officially listed as an assistant coach for both the men’s and women’s swim teams, she primarily worked with the women’s program and was the recruiting lead for the Gator women.
The Florida women steadily rose through the ranks during Murslack’s first three seasons with the program, placing 13th at the 2022 NCAAs, tying for 8th in 2023 and then producing a breakthrough 3rd-place finish in 2024, the team’s best finish in 14 years. The Gator women also won back-to-back SEC titles in 2023 and 2024.
However, the team fell to 6th place this past season at NCAAs, and were the runner-ups at the SEC Championships after Texas joined the conference and claimed the title in their debut season.
During her time at Pitt, Murslack primarily coached the individual medley and butterfly swimmers along with helping the mid-distance freestyle group. Like at Florida, she was the primary contact for women’s recruiting with the Panthers.
Prior to her coaching career, Murslack swam for Auburn from 2013 to 2017, earning SEC Honor Roll accolades twice and serving as a team captain.
She also worked as a graduate assistant coach for the Auburn women’s soccer program and spent time as a coaching intern at Auburn. She graduated with a Master’s in Higher Education Administration from Auburn in 2019 after earning her Bachelor’s in Exercise Science in 2017.
The Florida coaching staff, led by head coach Anthony Nesty, includes Whitney Hite as associate head coach and three other swimming assistants remaining with the departure of Murslack: Alex Dehner, Jack Szaranek and Annie Lazor.
Murslack did not respond to a request for comment.
Reading the comments remind me of the Swimswam story from a few years ago about Kevin Vargas.
https://swimswam.com/floridas-kevin-vargas-opens-up-on-missing-ncaas-i-needed-to-prioritize-my-well-being/
I’ve never heard a good thing about Nesty from former swimmers
Ledecky praised him.
“The spokesperson said the program is ‘focused on the next steps with continuing to move the program forward’ following Murslack’s departure.”
That is literally the definition of double-talk from “the spokesperson”. And that person is not identified. Sooooo essentially she got shown the door and they aren’t talking about it. Really nice, Florida. (not)
They did the same thing about Jungbluth a few years ago … not ONE word about it still to this day. He has resurfaced, but for a while, it was as if he just disappeared.
I’m still in shock about this … does anyone have any more info? Unless there’s more to it, this is such a bad decision and I don’t get it.
It’s unacceptable, the swimmers went on strike the next day and they currently have the worst recruiting class in the ncaa. Kristen was the glue keeping the women’s team alive, you wonder why Bella left
“The worst recruiting class in the NCAA” did you mean best?
Haven’t looked hard enough to confirm, but they’re certainly in the top 5 classes. Cal probably has #1, even after the Shackell defection. Florida has a strong case for #2.
Had to mean best, if they meant worst wouldn’t that be a blow to the former recruiting coordinator?
maybe theyre referring to the class of 2026 — its looking pretty soft so far, particularly compared to the previous 3 classes
This is CRAZY work from Nesty. Letting go one of your best/favorite coaches is wild. I’m sure Kristen stood up for what is right and Nesty can’t let go of his ego so she got let go
Bad leader and UF should be ashamed
We are ashamed it wasn’t Whitney getting the boot.
Or Jack! But his nose is so far up Nesty’s behind.
According to Braden, he’s a dark horse for the Stanford job. LOL
You won’t have to worry about Whitney much longer if he gets the Stanford job. Plus, Schemmel the Stanford men’s coach, was his assistant at Wisconsin.
are you serious. idk how i feel about that
This is going to be a huge blow for the Gators. You can see in social media how much Kristen means to the swimmers, especially the women’s team and how much they look up to her. Women in sports need a role model like her with a strong presence on deck. Not to mention the success with multiple SEC titles that have come from her recruiting. First Bella, now Kristen? Someone needs to take a hard look at the culture and the way athletes and staff are being treated by those in charge. Concerning to say the least. Wishing her all the best & hoping change is coming at Florida.
SMU is looking for a new assistant coach for the women’s team. This would be a home run hire for Ozzie
It would be an interesting test of SMU’s rise through the pecking order. The school is making investments and marketing itself to rise through the P4 ranks…Murslack will get calls from programs that were ‘bigger’ jobs than SMU 5 years ago, but SMU may now be much higher on that pecking order.
If she’s as well liked and respected as everyone here is making it seem, and clearly did well enough recruiting women to Florida, then I think she should aim for Stanford womens assistant