Indiana University Athletics
Looze To Head Up Both IU Swimming Programs
7/6/2005 12:00:00 AM | Women's Swimming and Diving
May 27, 2005
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - Ray Looze, who has coached Indiana men's swimming to three straight top four Big Ten Conference finishes and a pair of consecutive Top 20 national placements, has been named the Hoosiers' head men's and women's swimming coach, IU Athletics Director Rick Greenspan announced today. In his revised capacity, Looze will continue his current position as men's coach and also fill the role vacated by Dorsey Tierney, who resigned May 17 to take a similar position as the co-head women's swimming coach at Auburn.
Indiana's decision to combine both programs follows the same structure utilized by other perennial national swimming powers. Arizona, Auburn, Florida, Georgia and Southern California annually finish among the NCAA's top 10, with Auburn winning the last three men's national titles and either Auburn or Georgia taking the last seven women's crowns.
Greenspan is counting on Looze to continue restoring and maintaining the Hoosiers' proud men's and women's swimming tradition.
"Ray has done an outstanding job in his three years with our men's program, and we are confident that he will build upon the recent success that both teams have had," Greenspan said. "In a combined setting, Ray has a plan to maximize the efficiency of individualized training. This translates to even better team-wide success. Ray is extremely enthusiastic about this opportunity, and he will bring a lot of energy to both programs."
Marge Counsilman, wife of the late, legendary Indiana swimming coach James 'Doc' Counsilman, said that this announcement bodes well for the future of both Hoosier programs.
"When I talked to Ray recently, I had an inkling that this might happen," Counsilman said. "All I said was 'Best of luck and don't work too hard.' It sounds like alot of top programs are going to this arrangement, where one coach works mainly with sprinters and another mainly with distance swimmers. This should all work out well."
Indeed, Looze is optimistic about the future of IU swimming.
"This is a great opportunity for Indiana swimming and diving to take the next step in the sport's progress toward elite status," Looze said. "The combined model has worked extremely well in track and field for many years and is now the structure for about half the men's and women's swimming and diving teams across the NCAA. It will allow us to create stroke and distance specific training groups, share resources, streamline recruiting and compete more effectively with the best programs in the country. By working together, our women and men can start something very special at IU, which will allow us to contend for the Big Ten title every year and ultimately result in a national championship. It is very exciting to be a part of such a talented group of people."
The IU women also enjoyed a banner 2004-05 year, capped by a ninth-place finish with 112 points at the 2005 NCAA Championships. That feat now stands as the best effort at the national meet in IU annals, bettering the previous standard of a 10th-place tie in 2002. IU also hosted and finished second at the 2005 Big Ten Championship, marking its fifth straight top three finish at the league meet.
Indiana's diving performance was instrumental to the Hoosiers' ninth-place national finish. Cassandra Cardinell was the national platform champion, and Cardinell, Christina Loukas, and Lisa Silvestri accounted for 78 of IU's 112 points.
Indiana diving coach, seven-time U.S. National Coach of the Year and 2000 and 2004 U.S. Olympic coach Dr. Jeff Huber believes that this continuity will play a valuable role in both programs' continued success.
"Indiana University is extremely fortunate to have Ray Looze coaching both the men's and women's swimming programs," Huber said. "Ray is one of the finest young coaches in the United States and a future hall of fame coach. He has been associated with a high level success as both a swimmer and coach, and he has consistently found a way to succeed wherever he has been. He is extremely bright, dedicated, hard working, passionate and committed to the IU program, his swimmers, and the coaching profession. We are extremely lucky to retain such a talented coach, and I am excited to be working closely with him in the years to come. I know he and I both share similar values, goals and dreams, and look forward to making Indiana Men's and Women's Swimming and Diving the best program in the country."
Under Looze's leadership, the 2004-05 Indiana men enjoyed their best season in nearly 20 years. The Hoosiers finished second at the Big Ten Championships, just three points behind first-place Minnesota. IU followed the league meet with a 16th-place finish at the NCAA Championships, the best finish since IU posted a 15th-place effort in 1991. Additionally, the Cream and Crimson acquired its largest haul of All-American accolades since 1976 by garnering 24 citations over the three-day meet. Looze's swimmers accounted for 60 of the team's 76 points at the national meet.
Looze is no stranger to dual sport coaching responsibility. Looze came to IU after four years as the head men's and women's swimming coach at the University of Pacific. He won four straight Big West Conference Men's Swimming Coach of the Year honors, and he was named the league's Women's Swimming Coach of the Year honors in 2002. In 2001-02, Pacific snapped UC-Santa Barbara's string of 23-consecutive conference championships, and earned its first title in men's swimming since 1974. At the same meet, the Pacific women's team won its initial Big West title, outscoring second-place UC-Santa Barbara by 112 points.
Prior to Pacific, Looze led The Peddie School in Hightstown, N.J., to Swimming World's 1994-95 mythical national championship. He also served as an assistant coach at Harvard University and as a graduate assistant at Texas.
Looze graduated magna cum laude in finance from the University of Southern California in 1990, and he received a master's degree in education from Texas in 1991. He was a four-time All-American at USC, and he placed among the top 10 in eight NCAA Championship events in his Trojan career.
