By Braden Keith on SwimSwam
The SMU men’s swimming & diving team has announced the hiring of Caleb Rhodenbaugh to its coaching staff for next season. Rhodenbaugh is the son of the program’s head coach Greg Rhodenbaugh.
The team previously added Roric Fink to their coaching staff this offseason. Last year’s assistant coaches Keith Dawley and Tom Colket are no longer listed on the program’s roster. Dawley left for a job at USC.
Caleb spent the last two seasons as an assistant coach at NCAA Division II power Drury, where the men’s team has earned back-to-back NCAA D2 runner-up finishes.
Caleb swam for two seasons for Missouri before transferring to SMU when his dad took the head coaching job with the Mustangs. During those two seasons with SMU, he won 8 AAC Conference Championships and set program records in the 100 and 200 yard breaststrokes. He was also named the conference’s Most Oustanding Swimmer in 2022 as a senior, when he was also named the Most Valuable Male Student Athletes for the entire athletics department.
“We are so excited to bring Caleb back to Dallas and SMU,” Greg Rhodenbaugh said. “With his knowledge of SMU and our program here that he helped build back up as an athlete, he can now continue helping his fellow Mustangs from the coaching side. His experiences gained from the last two seasons at Drury, a top two Division II program, will be a great launching pad into helping our team to the next level.”
SMU won the Atlantic Sun Conference title last year in what will be their only year in that conference. Next season, they join the ACC, a Power 4 conference, along with national powers Cal and Stanford.
ACC programs NC State (#5), Virginia Tech (#9), Notre Dame (#10), Louisville (#17), and Virginia (#17) all finished ahead of SMU (#18) at last year’s NCAA Championship meet. Florida State (#21), Pitt (#24), Miami (#26), UNC (#33) also scored at NCAAs.
The Mustangs’ top scorer from last season’s ASUN Championship Jack Hoagland has his 5th year of COVID-19 eligibility remaining. Two of the team’s best five, are all out of eligibility after competed as 5th year’s last season. They have a good incoming freshman class, though, and a notable incoming transfer in British freestyler Michael Ripper who has long course bests of 50.67 in the 100 free and 1:51.14 in the 200 free. They also bring in freshman diver Luke Sitz, who finished 4th on 3-meter at last week’s Olympic Diving Trials.
Read the full story on SwimSwam: SMU Hires Caleb Rhodenbaugh, Son of Head Coach Greg, to Join Men’s Swimming Coaching Staff