Courtesy: New Mexico Athletics
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Ryan Evans, a former Big Ten collegiate swimmer that has spent the past three years as the head swimming coach at the Reno Aquatic Club, has been named as the new assistant swimming coach at The University of New Mexico. Head coach Keegan Ingelido made the announcement.
“I’m very excited to have someone of Ryan’s caliber join our staff,” said Ingelido. “He has experience in the Mountain West as a volunteer coach at Nevada, and he brings excellent head coaching experience to our program.”
Evans, who is a Level 4 certified coach with the American Swim Coaches Association, has spent the past 10 years entrenched in the Reno, Nevada swim community. He was the head coach at Bishop Manogue High School from 2017-2019, where he led both the boys and girls teams to its best finishes in the regular season, regionals and the Nevada State Championships. His swimmers set five school records and Donna dePolo picked of a state title as well.
From there he moved to the Reno Aquatic Club, where he spent three years before coming to UNM. He spent three months as the Head Age Group Coach before moving on to Head Coach. As the head coach he oversaw the entire program with over 180 swimmers, more than doubling the program’s enrollment, which was 79 when he became coach.
When he started with Reno Aquatic Club, the team only had two swimmers with Sectionals time standards. During his three years as head coach, Reno Aquatic Club had an Olympic Trials Wave 2 qualifier, two Summer Junior National qualifiers, three Winter Junior Nationals qualifiers, nine Futures qualifiers, twenty-one Sectional qualifiers, and thirty-nine Senior Zone qualifiers.
“Keegan is building a special program at the University of New Mexico, and I am very excited to be a part of the coaching staff,” said Evans. “I look forward to working with her to help the Lobos improve in the Mountain West Conference and nationally. UNM and Albuquerque is a special place, and I am thrilled to be here.”
Evans was a two-year letterwinner in swimming at Iowa, where he graduated in 2009 with a bachelor’s in Interdepartmental Studies. He was Iowa’s team captain in 2008-09, and he received the 2009 Big Ten Sportsmanship Award and the 2009 Iowa Swimming Leadership Award. He also earned a master’s in Leadership and Management from Western Governor’s University in 2011.
Go Ryan! Great hire!