Pending approval by the University’s Board of Trustees, Akron has named Brian Peresie as the new head coach of their women’s swimming and diving team.
Peresie comes to the program after two seasons at Malone University during their NCAA Division II exploratory phase. That means that he lead the Pioneers from NAIA to the NCAA, not an easy transition, though during those two years they were not eligible for NCAA Championship competition.
They will begin next season as full members of the NCAA. This year, though, they competed at their first ever GLIAC Championships, where Peresie certainly established a reputation for the program. Logan Bauer swept the conference titles on the 1 and 3 meters, the first two in program history, and crushed almost every school record multiple times by multiple seconds.
Having gone through the transition, Peresie is likely as well-versed in NCAA rules and regulations as just about anybody. The other strength that he brings to the Akron program is the fact that Malone is just a 25-minute drive south of Akron, near Canton, Ohio. That means he’s already very familiar with the region’s recruiting routes and swimming culture.
Furthering that idea is the fact that the entirety of his collegiate swimming career has been in the state of Ohio. After graduating from Ohio University in 2000, he served as a graduate assistant at Ashland, eight years back as a full-time assistant at his alma mater Ohio, then on to Malone and now Akron.
That also gives him big experience in the MAC: a conference which has a history of keeping top coaching talent inside its boundaries, meaning a lot of cross-rivalry relationships.
Peresie replaces Nittaya Klim, who retired from coaching after the end of the 2012-2013 season. The Akron women finished 8th out of 8 teams at this year’s MAC Championships: a conference that has probably become the deepest mid-major in the country. The strength of this program is its diving, where they had two Zone qualifiers last year, and senior-to-be Catherine Carr, who had three top-three finishes at the MAC Championships (200 IM, 400 IM, 200 fly) and is the school record holder in all three events.
