Courtesy: Brown Athletics
PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Mary Ann Lippit Women’s Swimming and Diving Coaching Chair Kate Kovenock has announced the promotion of Niko Fantakis to Associate Head Coach. Fantakis has been with the program since the 2018-19 season.
“This is an important day for all of us here and it’s been a long time coming,” said Kovenock. “Niko is a thoughtful mentor and a phenomenal coach with an innovative mind. His dedication to the program and care for our team over the last five years has had an immeasurable impact. I am proud to share a deck – and now a program – with Niko.”
Fantakis has led a resurgence in distance swimming since his arrival in 2018. Brown has seen multiple Bears enter the top-10 in program history in the distance freestyle and IM events with Sara Barrett in the top five in the 500, 1000 and 1650 freestyle and Sumner Chmielewski breaking the program record in the 400 IM.
Over the last 5 years, the Bears have also earned two fourth-place team finishes at the Ivy League Championship, broken 22 school records, and saw the program’s first NCAA qualifier since 2004 when Jenna Reznicek was invited to the NCAA Championships. Academically, the Bears have performed at a consistently high level, recording team GPAs that rank in the top 15 nationally every semester amongst DI Women’s Swimming & Diving teams.
Prior to Brown, Fantakis was an assistant coach with the men’s and women’s program at Duke for two seasons. With the Blue Devils, Fantakis contributed to the women’s team having a program record 12 individuals competing at the 2018 NCAA Championships. In his two seasons, the program totaled 40 school records and two All-American swimming performances.
