Cal Expected to Name Sarah Dunleavy as New Assistant Coach

The Cal women’s swimming and diving team is expected to name Sarah Dunleavy as the new assistant coach of the women’s swimming team in the next week. Pitt swimmers were informed of the move and multiple independent sources have confirmed the plan, which is pending some final administrative details.

She replaces Ian Walsh, who stepped down as Cal’s assistant after one season.

Dunleavy too makes a move after just one season at her former program, where she served as director of women’s recruiting. She is a 2012 graduate of Purdue, where she was a team captain and three-time All-Big Ten honoree. She was a 15-time All-State selection as a high schooler in Pennsylvania, where she grew up not far from Pittsburgh in Bethel Park.

Now she continues her rapid ascent through the coaching ranks. In only 5 years since graduating college, she’s coached an assistant at Illinois State (2012-2013), an assistant and recruiting coordinator at Kentucky (2013-2016) and one year at Pitt (2016-2017). She now moves on to Cal, who won an NCAA Championship as recently as 2015 (and have won 4 total under McKeever in 2009, 2011, 2012, and 2015). Cal finished 2nd at last year’s NCAA Championship meet.

In her one season at Pitt, the Panthers’ women’s team improved both their finish place (9th) and points total (428) at the ACC Championships from a year prior and broke 8 school records. They also sent 3 swimmers to the NCAA Championships, including an Honorable Mention All-American award in the 100 breaststroke for Kinga Cichowska.

When contacted, Cal said that they had no information at this time.