LA JOLLA, Calif. – University of California San Diego men’s and women’s swimming and diving head coach David Marsh has announced a pair of additions to his staff ahead of his second season in charge of the Tritons.
Kirk Kumbier comes aboard as an assistant coach, and Liz Sanchez as the head diving coach.
Kumbier changes coasts from Meadville, Pa., where he has been at Allegheny College since 2011. He began there as an assistant, before becoming the interim head coach for the 2013-14 campaign, and then subsequently being named to the permanent post. The Gators compete at the NCAA Division III level in the North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC). Kumbier’s official start date at UC San Diego is Sept. 3.
Kumbier swam for Division III power Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio, with the Lords producing three straight national titles in 2008, 2009 and 2010. He completed his undergraduate degree there in mathematics in 2011, and earned his Master of Education from the University of Missouri in Columbia, Mo., in 2016.
Sanchez coaches at all levels, springboard and platform, within the Mission Viejo Nadadores Diving (MVND) club program, having started there by helping with the lessons program, novice team and Junior Olympic age-group divers. She is currently working under MVND head coach Michele Mitchell, a two-time Olympic silver medalist for the U.S. in 1984 and 1988 on the 10-meter platform.
Born and raised in San Diego, Sanchez has almost two decades’ worth of coaching experience in swimming, diving and classical ballet, and has served as an instructor and choreographer for the City Ballet of San Diego and Balletcenter West.
Marsh announced on June 28 that he had elevated top assistant Marko Djordjevic to the title of associate head coach. Also the Tritons’ recruiting coordinator, Djordjevic will be in his sixth season on the Canyonview Aquatic Center pool deck in 2018-19.
Returning for a second season are assistant coach Savannah Miller and volunteer assistant Jeremy Parker. Emmett Walling remains on staff as well, for a sixth season as a volunteer assistant coach.
The Triton men and women both won a 10th consecutive Pacific Collegiate Swimming and Diving Conference (PCSC) team title in February. UC San Diego then announced in June that it was joining the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF), made up entirely of NCAA Division I opposition, effective immediately for this coming fall. The Tritons themselves will move to Division I following two more years at the Division II level. Last March, their women placed seventh and the men 21st at the NCAA Division II Championships in Greensboro, N.C.
UC San Diego begins its first season as an MPSF member this October, with its full 2018-19 competition schedule slated for release in the coming weeks. The swim portion of the 2019 MPSF Championships, featuring eight women’s teams and six men’s, will take place at East Los Angeles College in Monterey Park, Feb. 20-23, with the diving set for Feb. 21-23 at the Rose Bowl Aquatics Center in Pasadena.
Swimming News Courtesy: UC San Diego
