Duke swimming and diving assistant coach Dawn Kane has been promoted to the position of associate head coach, as announced by head coach Dan Colella Tuesday, Aug. 26. Kane enters her 10th season with the men’s and women’s teams in 2014.
Dan Colella, Duke Head Swimming Coach (courtesy of Tim Binning, theswimpictures.com)
“I hired Dawn when I first arrived here at Duke University in 2005 and she has been an incredible asset to the program,” Colella said. “She’s certainly well-deserving of this promotion as we head into our 10th season together. I’m really looking forward to another 10 years of continued success and I’m very proud of what she’s contributed to the program. I know that she will continue to be a major force in our program’s development.”
Kane has been instrumental in building the Duke swimming and diving program to its current level of success, guiding student-athletes to numerous achievements at the conference, national and international levels. Under Kane’s guidance, the Duke men and women have made appearances at the last six NCAA Championship meets and continue to make strides within the Atlantic Coast Conference.
The 2013-14 season saw the Blue Devil women take a school-record six swimmers to the NCAA Championship, qualifying a relay to the national meet for the first time. Individually, Christine Wixted garnered the first All-America honors of her career in the 200-yard breaststroke, while on the men’s side Nick McCrory became the first athlete in NCAA Championship history to win four national championships in men’s platform diving. McCrory also swept the three diving events again at the 2014 ACC Championships, and was joined by Michael Miller (400 IM) and Lauren Weaver (100 freestyle, 100 butterfly) in earning All-ACC distinction.
Kane has directed the Duke men and women to numerous program firsts, including five NCAA individual titles, a conference crown in a relay event (200 freestyle relay – 2011) and an ACC record (200 medley relay – 2012). The school record books and all-time top-10 lists have been completely re-written under her watch, and both the men’s and women’s teams have broken into the top 20 nationally at the NCAA Championships. In addition, Kane was nominated for CollegeSwimming.com’s Honorable Mention Assistant Coach of the Year Award at the conclusion of the 2011-12 campaign.
A 2002 graduate of Brown University and an eight-year member of the Jamaican National Swimming Squad, Kane brought extensive international and collegiate swimming experience to the Duke program. She is a two-time participant in the Olympic Games, having represented Jamaica in 2000 and 2004, and has earned medals in the Carifta Games, Caribbean Island Swimming Championships, Centro Americano y del Caribe Nataciones and Caribbean and Central American Games. Kane also represented Jamaica at the Pan American Games in 1999 (Winnipeg) and 2003 (Santo Domingo), as well as the Commonwealth Games in 2002 (Manchester) and added even more international experience to her resume when she coached the Jamaican National team at the 2007 World Championship meet in Melbourne, Australia.
Kane graduated in 2002 with a bachelor of science degree in psychology from Brown, where she was team captain of the swim team her senior year and is still in the record books as a member of the 400 and 800 freestyle relay teams that set school records in 2001. She was the Ivy League Champion in the 200 freestyle in 2001 and the 100 freestyle in 2002, and participated in the 2002 NCAA Championships.
College Swimming News courtesy of Duke Swimming and Diving.
Congrats Dawn and continue the great work. Loved to watch you swim for tornadoes and Jamaica.