Ray Looze, IU Head Swimming Coach (Image courtesy of IU)
Courtesy of IU Swimming:
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Indiana Swimming head coach Ray Looze announced today the addition of Jeff Kostoff and Kyle Hastings to the staff, as well as title changes for current coaches Donny Brush and Mike Westphal.
Kostoff and Hastings join the Indiana staff as assistant coaches for men and women’s swimming. Kostoff’s work will focus on assisting with distance and 400 individual medley swimmers, while Hastings will work with the sprinters. Kostoff was a two-time U.S. Olympian as part of the 1984 and 1988 squads. He finished sixth in the 400-meter individual medley at the 1984 games in Los Angeles, and was ninth in the same event in Seoul in 1988. In 1983 he was the gold medalist in the 1,500-meter freestyle at the Pan Am Games.
“Jeff comes back into elite level colligate and international swimming after a successful career in information technology,” Looze said. “He has avidly followed the sport over the years waiting for a chance to return. That chance has come at Indiana. Coach Kostoff will focus on distance and 400 IM swimmers. As one of Americans greatest distance/Individual medley simmers, the two-time U.S. Olympian brings a pedigree I feel will take our athletes to another level. His love of swimming is more than evident in what he has given up to return to our sport. We look forward to Coach Kostoff joining one of the finest coaching staffs in the world and playing a critical role in our pursuit of both NCAA championships and Olympians.”
A 1987 graduate of Stanford with a bachelor’s degree in history, Kostoff won five individual NCAA titles during his time on The Farm and was a member of NCAA champion teams in 1985, 1986 and 1987. He also competed on the cross-country team at Stanford.
Kostoff’s record at Stanford in the 1,650-yard freestyle stood for 21 years (1986-2007), while his national age-group record in the 500-yard freestyle held for 30 years (1983-2013) before being broken by Jack Conger earlier this year. Kostoff held the American record in the 1,650 freestyle from 1983-1994.
Since 2007 Kostoff has worked in information technology as a senior sales executive and systems engineer with PTFS in Bethesda, Md. He spent time as an assistant swimming coach/assistant aquatics director at Maryland (1993-97) and was also the head swimming coach at Manor Country Club (1991-98), St. John’s College High School (1992-93) and Rockville High School (1997-99).
Hastings joins the IU staff full time after serving as a volunteer assistant for the 2012-13 season. During that time while working with the sprinters the Hoosiers set new school marks in men’s 50 freestyle, 100 freestyle, 200 freestyle relay, 200 medley relay and 400 medley relay. Hastings was also a volunteer member of the staff in 2006-07.
“Kyle has developed into one of finest young sprint coaches in the NCAA,” Looze said. “His intelligence, innovation, motivation, and enthusiasm have positively impacted our teams over the last year he volunteered his time. Coach Hastings has put in his time selflessly and earned a place at one of the most historically successful swimming programs in NCAA history. Kyle is a fantastic recruiter who passionately believes in Indiana and our goals of becoming the best place to study and swim at a world class level for both undergraduate and post graduate elite level swimmers.”
From 2007-10 and 2011-12, Hastings was associate head coach at Metro Aquatic Club in Florida. While at MAC Hastings helped to develop a program that produced two Olympians, five Olympic trialists, five senior nationals qualifiers and 10 summer junior national qualifiers. Hastings was an assistant coach at Florida International University in 2007-08 and also spent one year (2010-11) as head coach for Club Seminole, as well as a volunteer coach at Florida State. Other stops in his coaching career include one season as club team head coach at the University of Maryland (2005) and coaching stops at Milford High School (Delaware) and Belen Jesuit High School (Florida). Hastings earned a bachelor’s degree at West Virginia Wesleyan College in 2003, and master’s degree at Maryland in 2006.
It was also announced that Brush and Westphal will take on the titles of Associate Head Coach for Men’s and Women’s Swimming.
Westphal will enter his 11th year overall at Indiana this fall and takes the reigns as the lead coach for the men’s team, concentrating on the training of the distance and middle distance group. Westphal has led the training for the distance group, with the 2012-13 season one of its most successful with a Big Ten title in the 1,650 freestyle for the women and both men’s and women’s All-America honorees in the mile.
“Coach Westphal is being promoted to Associate Head Coach for both Women’s and Men’s Swimming,” Looze said. “He will focus his coaching talents on the middle distances yet have an impact on all groups. He will continue be our lead coach for the men’s team, but will also work continue to work with our women. Mike is one of the finest coaches in the NCAA and this promotion reflects his important contributions to our program. Although he has done an outstanding job with our distance swimmers, I feel he can have a greater effect moving to middles distance as that is the cross roads of all the training disciplines. As our recruiting coordinator, Mike has distinguished himself as one of the top talent evaluators in the NCAA.”
Brush is entering his ninth season at Indiana and will work as the lead coach for the women’s team, focusing his efforts with the middle distance group. Brush previously concentrated his efforts on the sprint group, which posted five school records during the 2012-13 campaign.
“Coach Brush is being promoted to Associate Head Coach for both Women’s and Men’s Swimming,” Looze said. “He will become lead coach for our women’s team while continuing to work with our men. Coach Brush will also be based out of the middle distance women’s group but similarly to Coach Westphal, have impact in all training groups. Donny is one of the most innovative coaches in USA Swimming. His expertise in power training has brought our program to what I believe to be the most comprehensive pulley (power) training systems in the world. He is also respected throughout the world for his wisdom in seasonal planning. Lastly, Coach Brush will take on added responsibilities in recruiting as director of off-campus recruiting.”
A busy summer of swimming for the Hoosiers continues in July as seniors James Wells (U.S.-backstroke), Cody Miller (U.S.-breaststroke) and Eric Ress (France-backstroke) will compete at the World University Games in Kazan, Russia, July 10-17.
This is an unedited press release courtesy of IU.
These are great hires by Ray. It will be interesting to see how a combined team will do without a woman coach on staff. I cannot recall a major program doing this before.
It has happened in a few instances lately. It works. There aren’t a lot of female candidates out there with great experience.