STANFORD, Calif. - Stanford's Paul A. Violich Director of Women's Swimming and 2020 U.S. Olympic Head Coach
Greg Meehan was named head coach for Team USA at the 2019 FINA World Championships, and Stanford Associate Head Coach
Tracy Slusser will lead Team USA at the World University Games in July, as announced by USA Swimming on Wednesday.
Meehan and Slusser just competed their seventh season together at the helm of the Cardinal. The duo led Stanford to its third straight national championship as the Cardinal finished the regular season unbeaten for the fourth straight year and won its third straight Pac-12 championship, boasted 18 All-Americans and became the first school to three-peat since 2002-04.
Meehan, who was selected to lead the nation's Olympic women's swimming team at the 2020 Tokyo Games, is a three-time NCAA Swimming Coach of the Year and has won four Pac-12 Coach of the Year awards. Slusser has served on his coaching staff for each of his seven years on The Farm, and together, the pair has coached 36 different Cardinal swimmers to a combined 274 All-America honors, which includes 17 national championship relays and 25 individual national championships.
Meehan and Slusser mentored three Cardinal --
Lia Neal,
Simone Manuel and Maya DiRado, who combined to win nine medals (four gold) -- and future Stanford star
Katie Ledecky, who won four gold medals, one silver, and set two world records at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.
A graduate of Rider, Meehan earned a degree in mathematics and secondary education. While at Rider, he competed in the 200 backstroke and was a member of several Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference champion relays. Meehan also was a four-time All-Academic Award recipient, and was named to the school's Athletics Hall of Fame in 2017.
Before she arrived on The Farm, Slusser helped Arizona to a fifth-place finish at the 2012 NCAA Championships, the program's ninth consecutive NCAA finish in the top five. Prior to her one-year stint at Arizona, Slusser served as the women's assistant coach at Texas A&M for five seasons. During her tenure at Texas A&M, the women's team posted a program-best five top-10 finishes at the NCAA Championships, including a fourth-place showing in 2008. In 2009, Slusser mentored Texas A&M's first two NCAA individual national champions in Julia Wilkinson and Alia Atkinson.
A 2006 graduate of Purdue, Slusser was the first Boilermaker to break the 23-second barrier in the 50 freestyle and made a trio of appearances at the NCAA Championships (2003, 2004, 2005), which included honorable mention All-America honors in the 200 and 400 freestyle relays.
The World University Games will take place in Napoli, Italy, July 3-14, while the FINA World Championships will be hosted by Gwanju, Korea, July 21-28.
