Former Maryland Associate Head Coach John Pontz has been hired as an assistant at the University of Missouri, as the Maryland program continues to be disassembled and dispersed across the country.
Pontz had spent four seasons as an assistant at Maryland, including his last season there in the role of “Associate Head Coach”. Prior to that time, he spent three seasons with Northwestern during their glory days when Matt Grevers, Mike Alexandrov and crew scored three top-10 finishes at the NCAA Championships.
At Maryland, Pontz focused on middle-distance and breaststroke training groups, meaning he did a lot of work with Terrapin standouts like John Hauser, Ginny Glover, and Amy Halligan. Presuming he has a similar focus with the Tigers, these are two groups that the lady Tigers badly need help with. After graduations, Missouri doesn’t have a single 500 freestyler better than 4:53. They’ve got some decent depth in the breaststrokes, and Rachel Ripley is a strong 200 swimmer (2:12.77 last year), but after next year that group will be decimated too.
The men’s group is in a little bit better shape; they have a junior Mark Conroy who broke 53 in the 100 breaststroke last season; and Eegan Groome who was one of the country’s top freshman middle-to-distance swimmers last year.
But in both cases, Pontz will be tasked with finding some talent to fill out those groups under head coach Greg Rhodenbaugh as the Tigers move into the SEC.
Mizzou has already lost two coaches this off-season, as Roric Fink has left to become the assistant at Texas, and Randi Vogel went to South Carolina.
