The Louisville Cardinals announced today that assistant coaches Stephanie Juncker and Chris Lindauer have both been promoted to associate head coach.
Neither coach is new to head coach Arthur Albiero‘s staff, with Lindauer having been a Cardinal coach since the 2009-2010 season, after graduating from the school in 2008. Juncker is also a Louisville alum, graduating in 2012 and coaching at Arkansas prior to coming back to Louisville as a coach for the 2014-2015 season. Their coaching careers at Louisville have coincided with the Cardinals’ continued rise as a power at the conference, national, and international levels.
The Louisville men won their first ACC championship in February, the Cardinal men won NCAA titles in the 200 medley and the 200 fly (Nick Albiero), and alumnus Grigory Tarasevich was recently named to Russia’s Olympic team. Meanwhile, a number of current and former Louisville swimmers will be competing in Omaha this week contending for a spot on the U.S. Olympic team.
While the promotions are a relatively minor move, in the sense that both Lindauer and Juncker have been around for a while, they do come after a couple of other personnel changes this summer for the Cardinals. In May, long-time assistant coach Vlad Polyakov left Louisville to become the associate head coach under new Auburn head coach Ryan Wochomurka. The next month, the Cardinals announced that Florida State assistant Nick Zorn would be coming on board to fill the spot opened up by Polyakov’s departure.
Full Release, Courtesy of Louisville Athletics:
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — University of Louisville swimming coaches Stephanie Juncker and Chris Lindauer have been promoted to associate head coach according to Arthur Albiero, UofL head coach.
“When the opportunity to reorganize our coaching staff presented itself, my clear vision was to promote Stephanie and Chris to associate head coaches,” said Albiero. “I feel strongly that I just hired two of the very best coaches in the country. The quality of their work is well documented through our team growth and consistent levels of high-level performance at the collegiate and national level. That combined with their experience and loyalty to UofL makes both Stephanie and Chris a perfect fit for these positions.”
Both coaches come with impressive credentials outside their success at UofL. Juncker served as a 2018 SC World Championships Team USA Assistant Coach as well as a US National Team coach in 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017 and a 2016 US Junior National Team Coach. Lindauer served as a US National Team Coach in 2019 and 2020 as well as serving US Junior National Team Coach in 2014 and 2017.
Since joining the staff in 2009-10, on the men’s side, Lindauer has had a hand in six NCAA Championships. At the men’s NCAAs, he has helped coach 45 All-American relay performances and 74 All-American individual swims and helped the men move from tied for 21st his first year to fifth in 2021.Since joining the ACC, Lindauer has coached the men to 11 ACC gold medals in relays, 21 individual ACC gold medals and an ACC Championship. He had a hand in coaching 11 AAC individual gold medals, three AAC relay golds and an AAC team championship. He helped coach seven Big East individual gold medals, 17 Big East gold medal relays, and two Big East Championships, On the women’s side, he has helped coach eight NCAA champions, and coached the women to 56 individual All-American performances along with 31 All-American relay swims. He has been a part of 25 ACC individual gold medal swims, and three ACC Relay championships. He helped coach six AAC individual championships, and four AAC relay championships en route to an AAC team championship. Prior to that, he helped coach 19 Big East individual golds, 11 Big East relay champions and three Women’s Big East Team Championships.
Since joining the staff in 2014-15, on the men’s side, Juncker has been a part of two NCAA championships, 47 individual All-American swims, 29 All-American relays, 21 individual ACC gold medal swims, 11 ACC gold medal relay swims and an ACC Championship. On the women’s side she has helped coach eight individual NCAA Championship swims, 43 All-American individual swims, 29 All-American relay performances and a program-high fourth place in the team standings at NCAAs. She has helped coach 25 ACC individual gold medal swims, and three ACC Relay championships.