Cal State Bakersfield head coach and Director of Swimming Chris Hansen is currently on paid administrative leave, the school confirmed to SwimSwam on Tuesday.
According to a source, Hansen has been on leave since returning from the Big West Championships in February, though the school declined to release any additional details beyond confirming it “because this is a personnel matter.”
Hansen has been the head coach at CSUB for 17 years, initially being hired in 2008 to serve as head coach of the men’s team before taking over as Director of Swimming in 2011.
This past season, the Roadrunner women’s team placed 5th out of six teams at the 2025 Big West Championships, while the men finished 5th out of five teams, with junior Vili Sivec winning conference titles in the men’s 100 and 200 fly.
Following the Big West meet, CSUB sent Sivec to the Bulldog NCAA Qualifying Meet, where he set a new school record in the 100 free in a time of 41.98, which ultimately saw him fall short of the NCAA Championship cutline by three one-hundredths of a second.
Sivec also set new school records in the 50 free (19.27), 200 free (1:33.48), 100 fly (45.61) and 200 fly (1:43.13) during the season.
In 2023-24, CSUB competed at the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Championships, with the women placing 5th out of 10 teams and the men taking 6th out of seven teams.
In 2019-20, the team’s last season in the Western Athletic Conference (WAC), Hansen coached Autumn D’Arcy to three individual conference titles, earning her WAC Swimmer of the Year honors, while Mikayla Popham won Freshman of the Year honors.
