Competitor Coach of the Month: Matt Kredich, Tennessee

Competitor Coach of the Month is a recurring SwimSwam feature shedding light on a U.S.-based coach who has risen above the competition. As with any item of recognition, Competitor Coach of the Month is a subjective exercise meant to highlight one coach whose work holds noteworthy context – perhaps a coach who was clearly in the limelight, or one whose work fell through the cracks a bit more among other stories. If your favorite coach wasn’t selected, feel free to respectfully recognize them in our comment section.

Together, the University of Tennessee’s men’s and women’s teams rose a combined 11 spots in our post-invite Power Rankings (here and here) after breakout performances at home.

Matt Kredich‘s teams roared from 16th to 14th (men) and 19th to 10th (women) while putting up a number of key swims.

Most notable is sophomore Erika Brown, who has risen from obscurity to become one of the nation’s best and most versatile sprinters. Brown entered college as a 22.8/48.9 sprinter – a nice prospect, but not yet a world-beater. She had modest drops of about half a second in both events as a freshman, but her sophomore campaign has been explosive.

Brown kicked off December by going 50.33 in the 100 fly on December 1, a time that leads the nation by a tenth of a second. The time was a 2.3 second drop, and since the beginning of this college season, Brown has dropped nearly five full seconds in the 100 fly. Check out her progression below:

Later in that same session, Brown went 52.27 in the 100 back (a lifetime-best by 2.2 seconds) and 1:45.59 in the 200 free (just off a lifetime-best). The next day, she went 47.54 for a lifetime-best 100 free, then split 47.6 later on. We’ll also give her Swimmer of the Month credit for a 21.50 in the 50 free, a 21.57 free split and a 50.8 fly split, though those all took place on November 30.

Kredich also has transfer Stanzi Moseley swimming faster than she has since high school, sophomore Tess Cieplucha swimming lifetime-bests in the 200 IM and 400 IM, among others, and Kyle Decoursey knocking on the door of an 18-second swim in the 50 free. Kredich also gets credit for post-grad breaststroker Molly Hannis, who became just the second woman in history to break 57 seconds in a 100 breast swimming a time trial at the Tennessee Invite.

About Competitor Swim

Since 1960, Competitor Swim® has been the leader in the production of racing lanes and other swim products for competitions around the world. Competitor lane lines have been used in countless NCAA Championships, as well as 10 of the past 13 Olympic Games. Molded and assembled using U.S. – made components, Competitor lane lines are durable, easy to set up and are sold through distributors and dealers worldwide.

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