Brown University announced today that there will be a leadership change for the women’s swimming and diving program. Kate Kovenock will not return as head coach. The school announced that “A national search will begin immediately for the next women’s swimming and diving head coach.”
“We thank Kate for her leadership of our women’s swim and dive program,” Brown Athletic Director M. Grace Calhoun said. “We are grateful for her contributions and wish her well in her next chapter.”
Kovenock has served as head coach of the women’s program since the 2014-2015 season. During her time with the program, the team swam to a 46-41 overall dual meet record as well as a 35-40 Ivy League dual meet record.
The Brown women had a successful year during the 2025-2026 campaign. Back at the start of November in their opening weekend, they swam to a 160-140 dual meet win over Yale. That was the team’s first win over Yale since 2012.
Last month at the 2026 Ivy League Championships, the women’s team finished 4th out of eight teams. They scored 1137 points to finish just behind Harvard who finished 3rd with 1153.5 points. Highlighting the meet was Morgan Lukinac who won Ivy League titles in both the 100 (48.29) and 200 (1:44.20) freestyles. Lukinac’s win in the 100 free marked Brown’s first win in the event since 2006. Lukinac also helped the 400 free relay to a win, marking the school’s first win in the event since 2004.
Lukinac went on swim at the 2026 NCAA Championships alongside teammate Natalie Garre. Garre earned an individual invite to NCAAs based on her 3rd place finished in the women’s 1650 freestyle at the Ivy League Championships as she swam to a 16:11.29. That time placed her on line 25 of the NCAA psych sheets. Garre arrived at Brown this past season after spending her freshman season at Bowdoin where she crushed the Division III record in the 1650 free with a 16:17.84.
BWSD has been improving every year under Kate and pushing the Ivy League to be faster. It’s clear that Kate is a talented coach that facilitates a positive team culture. She cares about her student athletes and that was shown especially this year. It’s unfortunate to see her go before all of her hard work could be realized by placing higher at Ivies, but the team has performed so well over the last few years especially in 2026. Brown won the 800 Freestyle Relay at Ivies for the first time since 2002 along with lots of record breaking performances throughout the year. I wish the new AD would have attended Ivies or any of the swim meets to see what… Read more »
Will they take the Yale route and combine programs maybe??
My daughter was being recruited by Kate years ago and we always found her to be extremely professional and transparent. In the end, our daughter was not offered a position, but my husband and I were always grateful for the interactions we had with her. She truly did stand out to us and we always had positive thoughts and feelings towards her and the Brown program. This truly is baffling.
This makes no sense! The team had an amazing season and are preforming at a level never reached before. It is not fair for the AD who know little to nothing about the sport or the team dynamics to come in and make this kind of decision with little to no explanation. The poor swimmers have already been through a lot this year and this decision just adds to that load.
You can tell the team has a great culture on top of major success this year! Taking the coach who has built this program for the past 12 years is an awful decision. And making this decision with little to no explanation shows how little the AD truly knows about this program.
Agreed they had a strong season but “performing at a level never reached before “… Kredich was there in the late 90s and won a pair of conference championships
Kredich’s team actually won 4 straight conference titles (1996-1999), they just changed the name after the first two.
Change in leadership and going in a different direction, is basic Athletic Director BS. The AD needs to say what direction they plan on going. What type of leader are they searching for? Just firing her after a great season leads everyone to think “what did she do wrong?”
Did her habit of stealing NESCAC swimmers catch up with her?
There ain’t no stealing anymore. There ain’t no paying kids under the table. Question is, how many SEC schools have already offered the kid from PItt, six figures????
There’s the bowdoin homer we miss from the D3 forums!
“Polar Bear”, perhaps you aren’t aware of this but Ivy Leagues do not provide athletic scholarships. Ivys only provide need based financial aid. Therefore, I’m not sure what you mean by ‘stealing’. You aren’t giving these female student athletes any credit in terms of their ability to gather information, think for themselves, and then make a decision that is best aligned with their goals and their future.
No you’re missing the point! NESCAC people are convinced that NESCAC universities are more prestigious than Ivy League schools.
Go on any NESCAC forum and you’ll see all the data laid out in front of you. I think there must be a course in this at every small Northeastern college. “NESCAC apologetics.”
Aw I feel that Brown has actually had a notably terrific season this year (as evidenced by these other comments) – I hope the Brown AD isn’t seeing 4th place at Ivies as a failure in any way. The Brown team has pushed the whole league to be faster this year
Excellent season for Brown women’s swim team. Why fire the coach. Seems strange. Where have Brown’s mens swim team placed the past 10 years? Curious. I will see if I can bring up data on that issue.
Not sure why this unfortunate news about Coach Kovenock warrants a passive aggressive comment about the men’s team…. It’s two different programs. I believe their staff has been there for 6 years, not 10, and have been 4th three of those years, 5th twice and 6th once. They’ve also been represented at NCAA’s the last 4 years including 3 All American swims by Jack Kelly.
The Brown men have been significantly better since Kevin Norman became the head coach compared to the decade before that. Consistently developing swimmers to the top of the conference.