University of Florida Adds Former Wyoming Coach Kristin Walker As New Associate Head Coach

The University of Florida has hired former Wyoming Associate Head Coach and Recruiting Coordinator Kristin Walker as their Associate Head Coach for the 2025 season.

“I am very excited to join the incredible staff and team at Florida,” Walker said about her new position. “Thank you to Coach Nesty, Mike Spiegler, and the swimming and diving staff for their trust in giving me this opportunity. It is a humbling privilege to be able to contribute to such a respected program. Go Gators!”

 

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Walker has been at Wyoming for the last six seasons, where she coached 11 Mountain West and WAC conference champions over both the men’s and women’s programs. She also helped coach Macey Hansen, who qualified for the 2025 NCAA Championships in the 500 and 1650 freestyle to become the school’s first swimming qualifier since 2016.

She was recently one of the recipients of this year’s  American Swim Coaches Association 30 Under 30 Award which awards exceptional young coaches with a full grant to attend the 2025 ASCA World Clinic which will run from September 2nd-5th, 2025 in Reno, Nevada.

Walker swam collegiately at the University of New Mexico, where she swam the 100 and 200 breaststroke and 200 IM all four years she was in college.

After graduating in 2016, she began coaching at Georgia Southern, spending three seasons there as an assistant coach, ultimately winning the CSCAA Jean Freeman Scholarship, which is given to “six collegiate coaches whose exceptional contributions have brought recognition to their institution.”

Walker will be the only female swimming coach on the Florida coaching staff this season after Kristen Murslack was let go in April and Annie Lazor moved to Stanford to become the Associate Head Coach there. The assistant diving coach Laurent Perez Gillooly is also a woman.

She will join the staff of Head Coach Anthony Nesty, fellow Associate Head Coach Whitney Hite, Diving Coach Bryan Gillooly, and Assistant Coaches Alex Dehner, Jack Szaranek, and Laurent Gillooly.

Anthony Nesty said “We’re excited to welcome Kristin to our staff as associate head coach. Her gift of connecting with athletes and helping them realize their potential, both in the pool and in life is something every championship program is built on. We’re incredibly fortunate to have her on board.”