Greg Meehan Named 2018 CSCAA Division I Women’s Coach of the Year

2018 WOMEN’S NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS

When Greg Meehan took over the Stanford women’s swim program in the 2012-2013 NCAA season, he took over one of the most successful programs in NCAA history. It was a program, however, that hadn’t won a title since 1998 (though, in 2010 they came up just 2.5 points short).

5 years later in 2017, maybe a year later than expected after an early relay DQ upended the Cardinal’s 2016 title hopes, Meehan brought home his first NCAA women’s team title to the farm. This year, Stanford was unstoppable, sweeping the relays and finishing the meet a full 220 points ahead of second-place Cal. For that, he was named the Collegiate Swim Coaches’ Association of America (CSCAA) Division I Women’s Coach of the Year.

The Stanford women outperformed their already-historic 2017 year, scoring 593 points to last season’s 526.5 points. They also clearly hit their tapers outscoring the psych sheet by 65.5 points with five NCAA/American records.

We are living in an incredible era of college swimming with the Stanford women at the forefront, and they are poised to stay there for years into the future.

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Yozhik
6 years ago

The ‘ best coach” award is like “best movie” award. It doesn’t reflect if the particular coach is good. It just says that he is better than others this year. Why? The criterion is very simple: his team won.
Now there is another question: did he make his team of 18 or so swimmers better? Or it is just enough to care about three stars that won 7 of 8 gold and made possible 5 winning relays. Should the coach get rewarded by team performance then count achievements of all swimmers of the team. If to average performances of all team members i am not sure coach Meehan will win. But it is completely different game.

Dudes
6 years ago

JOEY!!!!

ACC fan
6 years ago

Props to the assistant coaches too. Might be nice to name them in the article as certainly meehan does not do it all by himself.

200 SIDESTROKE B CUT
6 years ago

This is the most shocking headline I have ever read here.

slug
6 years ago

coach joey?? what are you doing there??

Dudes
Reply to  slug
6 years ago

Joey!!!!

Swimfan
6 years ago

Meehan is an awesome recruiter and a fabulous developer of talent this title is rightfully earned. Congrats to Greg and the rest of the staff, along with the team.

Swimmer
6 years ago

Recruiter of the Year.

dude
Reply to  Swimmer
6 years ago

That’s half the truth. There are many great recruiters who can’t also get a stable of athletes of that caliber to keep swimming faster. He’s been super impressive.

AvidSwimFan
Reply to  Swimmer
6 years ago

It’s one thing to recruit, it’s another thing to help them improve. Don’t be a hater.

Ol' Longhorn
Reply to  AvidSwimFan
6 years ago

Ledecky got worse. He McKeever’d her.

AvidSwimFan
Reply to  Ol' Longhorn
6 years ago

Ledecky went from being a pure freestyler to a potential dominant 400 IMer. That isn’t worse in my book.

Cameheretoplayschool
Reply to  Swimmer
6 years ago

Absurd comment. Why are you judging coaching performance based purely off Ledecky? Ally Howe has gotten faster, Simone Manuel…faster, Ella Eastin…..faster. Just to name a few. We’ve all had meets where a swimmer didn’t swim to what everyone thought they were capable of. It happens. Congrats Coach Meehan!

Ol' Longhorn
Reply to  Cameheretoplayschool
6 years ago

You haven’t been paying attention to SwimSwam during the Missy Franklin Cal/post-Cal years. All failures, regressions, non-improvements were blamed on McKeever. Never the athlete. Never injuries (those were blamed on McKeever, too). Never bad luck. Simone gets injured, goes slower in the 200 and the 100. Ledecky has two off years. If they had swum for Cal, those would have been blamed on McKeever. Just look it up. The absurdity is that there’s a double standard based on gender of coaches.

samuel huntington
Reply to  Ol' Longhorn
6 years ago

there’s a huge difference. Simone and Katie are still winning NCAA and world titles. Meehan does not deserve any blame

About Hannah Hecht

Hannah Hecht

Hannah Hecht grew up in Kansas and spent most of her childhood trying to convince coaches to let her swim backstroke in freestyle sets. She took her passion to Morningside College in Sioux City, Iowa and swam at NAIA Nationals all four years. After graduating in 2015, she moved to …

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