We’ve taken a look at how the first year and second year head coaches fared during the 2024-25 NCAA season, now it’s time to reflected on how the season went for the third-year head coaches.

Progress in the NCAA isn’t always linear and all of these teams faced changes in their postseason, either going to a new conference meet or having schools added to their familiar conference championships. Still, as opposed to the first and even second-year head coaches, by the times coaches have completed their third season at the helm of a program, patterns have begun to emerge, and we get a clearer sense of the direction that a head coach is leading a program.

Like we did with the second-year head coaches, we’ve kept this list to Power Four programs and teams that have recently made the NCAA Championships, allowing us to dive a little deeper on each program.

Neil Versfeld, Georgia Men

Asterisk denotes new conference structure

 When legendary Georgia head coach Jack Bauerle retired, the Georgia swimming and diving programs split, with Neil Versfeld taking over the men’s program and Stefanie Williams Moreno the women’s. The 2024-25 season marked the men’s team’s most successful season at the NCAA level since 2021, as the team’s seventh place finish with 238.5 points in Federal Way marked the team’s highest finish and point total since that year.

Luca Urlando’s return has a lot to do with that; the Olympian won the team’s lone individual 2025 NCAA title with a 200 butterfly NCAA record. He was the team’s highest point scorer and a valuable asset to its relays. Senior Jake Magahey closed out his collegiate career as a consistent scorer for the Dawgs. He earned 42 points for the team highlighted by fourth place finishes in the 500 free and 400 IM, plus a seventh place outing in the 200 butterfly.

Magahey finishing out his NCAA eligibility will be something the team has to build back from, but Urlando declaring he will use his remaining two years of eligibility does give the Dawgs a boost. Still, there are signs of development from the swimmers Versfeld has brought in. Enticing Ruard van Renen to transfer continues to pay off for Georgia as the South African backstroke/sprint freestyler continues to improve in Athens and sophomore Tomas Koski continues to reach new heights in the mid-distance events.

The Georgia men managed to remain top five in the SEC standings even with Texas’ arrival, maintaining that streak in the Versfeld era. All the NCAA scorers were key to that effort and freshman Drew Hitchock played an important role too, sneaking into a pair of ‘A’ finals after touching 8^th in prelims. As Georgia continues to graduate its biggest stars, developing underclassmen like Hitchcock will be key for the men to continue to find success under Versfeld without going into full rebuild mode.

Stefanie Williams Moreno, Georgia Women

Asterisk denotes new conference structure

 Without a big superstar like Urlando or a consistent NCAA scorer like Magahey, it has been more up and down for the Georgia women since Bauerle’s departure. Zoie Hartman’s graduation at did not help either.

The Georgia distance freestyle crew made a name for itself a couple of seasons ago, peaking with Abby McCulloh’s 1650 freestyle NCAA title last season. But, despite some intriguing early season returns, the distance group and the team took a step back on the NCAA stage this season, falling from their 13^th place finish in 2024 to 16^th in 2025 with half as many points (58). McCulloh was the team’s highest scorer with 20 points and a fourth-place finish in the 1650 freestyle, followed by senior Rachel Stege’s 11 points and sophomore Helena Jones’ three.

The team had some positive early season returns from transfer Ieva Maluka that they will look to parlay into postseason success next season. The 2025-26 team also projects to get a boost from incoming freshman Kennedi Dobson, who is the women’s first SwimSwam ranked recruit since 2021. With four “Best of the Rest” recruits arriving next season and another ranked recruit in Virginia Hinds on campus in fall 2026, there are flashes of positives for the Georgia women to build on—especially at the conference level, where they held onto a top 5 finish—but it looks like ot will be a couple more seasons before they are back contending for a top 10 finish at the NCAA Championships.

Lea Maurer, USC

Asterisk denotes new conference

It’s also been an up-and-down time for USC coming out of the pandemic. Things ended on a high note for the Trojans this season, as the men placed 15^th at the NCAA Championships for the program’s highest finish since 2018. Diving was the driving force behind that placement for USC, but sophomore Krzysztof Chmielewski scored 17 points in the swimming pool and senior Chris O’Grady also got on the board, breaking his 200 breast record twice in one day (1:50.48) as he placed 11^th.

That success built on a rocky but ultimately successful Big 10 Championship debut. The Trojans surprised by winning the 800 freestyle relay on day 1, then failed to put a swimmer into finals on Day 2. The team was able to refocus and finish 4^th  with 878 points and two titles. But in general, one thing that USC is still aiming for is postseason consistency.

The Trojan women finished 11^th at their NCAA Championships, scoring 130 points. Sophomore Minna Abraham continues to shine for the team; she was their highest scorer and the 200 freestyle runner-up in a race that came down to the touch. Her sprint freestyle capabilities boost the relays as well, which will help the team in the post-Kaitlyn Dobler era, which begins next season. Dobler won the team’s first Big 10 championship title at the conference meet in Februray, leading them to a 5^th place finish (835 points) in their Big 10 Championship debut.

Chase Kreitler, Pitt

Asterisk denotes new conference structure

 The Pitt women had a historic season during Chase Kreitler’s third year at the head of the program. At midseason, they qualified their first relay for the NCAA Championships in 19 years and just kept building. Despite the high-power additions of Stanford and Cal to the ACC, the Panthers climbed two spots in the conference to eighth, earning their highest finish at ACCs since 2015. They also qualified all five relays for NCAAs.

They sent 10 women to the NCAA Championships, where Sophie Yendell became the highest women’s NCAA finisher in program history courtesy of her fifth-place finish in the 50 freestyle. Claire Jansen then scored in the 100 backstroke, marking the first time since 1985 two Pitt women swimmers scored at NCAAs. Further, the 800 freestyle relay lowered their program record to finish 18^th at NCAAs—their best relay finish at NCAAs in 38 years, a placement the 200 free relay matched.

At the end of the meet, seven more program records had fallen and the team finished tied for 27^th, marking the highest NCAA team finish in 29 years.

The men finished 34^th at their NCAA Championships. 2024 ACC Male Diver of the Year Cameron Cash earned all the team’s 13 points. Though he did not score, Max Matteazzi earned a career-high NCAA finish in the 200 breaststroke with his 31^st place and set a program record in the 200 IM (1:42.87).

The Pitt men will have to rebuild on the national level after this season as two-time NCAA qualifiers Cash, Matteazzi, and Jackson Salisbury (three of the team’s five qualifiers this season) all closed out their collegiate careers in March.

Jonas Persson, Utah

Asterisk denotes new conference 

Jonas Persson arrived at Utah as an associate head coach; he served as interim head coach during the 2022 postseason and had the interim tag removed ahead of the 2022-23 season. Seven program records fell during Persson’s first two years in charge of the program, while Jaek Horner posted an 11^th place finish in the 100 breaststroke at the 2024 Men’s NCAA Championships, the highest finish in program history in that event.

The records continued to fall this season as the team joined the Big 12 conference. Plenty of records went down in the pool, but it was the divers who shone most during the postseason. Jesco Helling won the platform title at the 2025 Big 12 Championships, the first Big 12 title for the team during its debut at the conference’s championships and Callie Eaglestone won women’s freshman Diver of the Meet.

Then, Elias Petersen scored 15 points at the Men’s NCAA Championships, powering the Utes to a 30^th place finish. He finished fourth-place finish on the 1-meter board, the best diving finish in team history. He was the only men’s Big 12 diver to earn First-Team All-American honors, earning Persson’s fellow coach Richard Marschner Big 12 Men’s Diving Coach of the Year.

The bulk of Utah’s swimmers attended the CSCAA Championships in March, with breaststroker Erin Palmer earning Female Swimmer of the Meet honors.