Illinois State head women’s swimming and diving coach Riley Hilbrandt has resigned from her position, the school announced Thursday. Hilbrandt spent the last two seasons with the program after previously spending time at East Carolina as an assistant coach.
“We appreciate Riley’s hard work and dedication to the program over the past two seasons and wish her the best going forward,” ISU Director of Athletics Dr. Jeri Beggs said. The school announced “A national search for Illinois State’s next swimming & diving head coach will begin immediately.”
The school has already posted the position on the NCAA job page. The target salary is $65,000-80,000. According to Apartments.com, Normal, Illinois has about 0.8% lower cost of living than the national average. ISU does not have a men’s program.
Hilbrandt arrived at ISU in fall 2024, after the team finished 4th out of nine teams at the 2024 Missouri Valley Conference Championships. The team fell to 7th at the 2025 Missouri Valley Conference Championships in her first season and were 7th one again at the 2026 Missouri Valley Conference Championships.
Mia Snow led the team this past season with 73 individual points at the 2026 Missouri Valley Conference Championships including a 2nd place finish in the 100 fly (54.14). Snow just finished her graduate season so the team will be in search of another top swimmer at the conference level.
The next head coach will be the 4th head coach in four years as interim head coach Sean Sullivan led the program during the 2023-2024 season after former head coach Caitlin Hamilton left the program in August 2023 to become the new associate head coach of Kentucky. Sullivan is currently an associate head coach at fellow-Missouri Valley Conference school Indiana State, which notably had their first NCAA qualifier and scorer this past season as Grace Cummings was 15th in the 1650 free at the 2026 NCAA Championships.
Ryan McCoy was an asst coach their I think 2 years ago. Do you think he would be interested in the job.
Ryan is the head coach st St Louis U., his alma mater
maybe one of the swimmer’s parents could take the team over?
Perhaps this comment was meant for some levity – if so, well done. But sadly and unbelievably, yes, that has occurred in college programs!
Fordham just a year or two ago!
Lmao okay but tbf that coach was also a USA Swimming coach and an Olympic medalist.
https://swimswam.com/fordham-appoints-olympic-medalist-tom-wilkens-interim-coach-after-7-week-limbo/
💀
Maybe the search committee should hire someone “who can coach and not just AI a resume.” Maybe the search committee should know something.
This team deserves a good coach that invests in them and the program, some of these girls have been through 6 different head/assistant coaches while being at ISU. What a shame. Should just go back and hire Sean Sullivan… seems to be doing a great job at Indiana State
hopefully that team can get a good coach, ISU has the potential to be a great program
Took the team from 4th to 7th, only 2 years, and a quiet exit? Seems like the rebuilding of the program didn’t go to plan, those girls will be better off with a new coach.
Took the team from 4th to 7th, only 2 years, and a quiet exit? Seems like the rebuilding of the program didn’t go to plan, those girls will be better off with a new coach.
Seems like a pretty good salary for this level D1 program with only a women’s team
There are definitely worse.
Would be a pretty fun job for the right person!
Took the team from 4th to 7th, only 2 years, and a quiet exit? Seems like the rebuilding plan was more of a demolition, those girls will have much better luck with a new coach.
How many different times and under how many different usernames and fake emails are you going to leave the same comment?
Seems like it’s personal. You should just reach out to Coach Hilbrandt yourself and discuss your concerns.