Iowa head coach Marc Long announced on Tuesday that the Hawkeyes have hired Brandon King as their new assistant coach. He takes over a newly-created position, meaning that the Iowa swimming staff has now been expanded to five.
King comes from the Fox Valley Swim Team in Naperville, Illinois, where he was an assistant to Dave Krotiak from 2011-2013. King was also the head girls’ coach and assistant boys’ coach at Neuqua Valley High School, and they finished 8th in 2012 and 3rd in 2013 at the Illinois High School State Championship meet.
In his time there, he worked with Indiana commit Gia Dalesandro, who was the Illinois High School State Champion in the 100 fly (53.44) and 200 IM (2:02.53) last season.
Neuqua Valley and the Fox Valley Swim Team are also the home programs of U.S. Open Record holder and NCAA Champion Kevin Cordes, though the two would’ve only had a brief overlap there, if at all.
King will be a very young member of this staff, having completed his collegiate eligibility at Hope College in Michigan in just 2010. While there, he was a Division III All-American.
The Iowa men finished 7th out of 10 teams at the 2013 Big Ten Championships, and the women were 10th out of 12 teams. That was a bit of a shuffle-back year for them after the explosive 2012 championship season that the Iowa men had; that Hawkeye men’s team still did qualify some relays for the NCAA Championships, finishing 32nd overall.
Both teams have solid recruiting momentum; Iowa prior to last season added Lindsay Seemann to their women’s roster, who had an immediate impact, and will also bring in a 55.2 100 yard freshman butterflier in Emma Sougstad next fall.
The top signee on the men’s side is from Illinois as well – Peter Grumhaus from Lake Forest High School. He’s got great versatility through all of the freestyle and backstroke events especially, peaking at a 1:37.9 in the 200 and a 4:24.2 in the 500.
Former Neuqua and Fox Valley swimmer Grant Betulius swims at Iowa – he was top 16 at NCAA’s in 100 back, as well as Olympic Trial qualifier.
Iowa is an average team at best with awesome caps.
Way to go Hawks and Coach Marc Long. Keep moving up!
Go Hawkeyes!
Coach Long is building a good program there. Brand new Aquatic Center helps too.
Our kids can be seen wearing Iowa swim caps around Austin.