University of Minnesota-Twin Cities Men's Swimming & Diving

The Golden Gophers have one of the most respected and accomplished diving coaches in the world in Wenbo Chen, who will be in his 16th season with the program in 2024-25. Following four years as USA Diving’s head coach, he joined Minnesota’s staff on April 16, 2009. Chen has been named the Big Ten Women’s Diving Coach of the Year nine times in his career, and was also named the Men’s Diving Coach of the Year in 2016. He has coached four national champions, multiple CSCAA and Big Ten Divers of the Year and Olympic medalists. NCAA SUCCESS Vivi Del Angel became the most recent success story under Chen, winning Minnesota's first ever National Championship on the women's platform in 2024. Her teammate, freshman Elna Widerstrom, also found success at the 2024 NCAA Championships, placing sixth in the 1-meter to earn All-American recognition. On the men's side in 2024, freshman YuTong Wang became an All-American in both of his events after placing eighth in both the 1-meter and the 3-meter at the NCAA Championships. Sarah Bacon, the University of Minnesota's winningest woman in any sport, was a five-time NCAA Champion under the tutelage of Chen. Her first title came in the 1-meter at the 2018 NCAA Championships. She then went on to win three titles in the next two years, claiming gold in the one-meter at the 2019 NCAA Championships and gold both springboard events at the 2021 NCAA Championships. She repeated on the 3-meter in 2022, while her three-peat in the one-meter is something on

Kelly Kremer is in his 27th season with the Minnesota swimming and diving staff in 2024-25, currently serving as the Director of Swimming and Diving. Kremer ...

Maddy Olson enters her eighth season on the Minnesota staff in 2025-26. After serving as assistant coach/coordinator of recruiting and communications for five seasons, and associate coach for two seasons, she was promoted to Associate Head Coach in May 2025. She has spent the past four seasons working with the distance group, which includes NCAA All-Americans Bar Soloveychik, Megan Van Berkom and Eliot Kennedy along with qualifiers Katie McCarthy, Chris Nagy and Joey Tepper. Olson was named an assistant coach for the 2025 World Aquatics Championships in Singapore for the U.S. Open Water team, where Tepper placed 12th in the 10K. She also served as coach for Team USA at the 2025 Open Water World Cup stop in Ibiza. Olson returned to the U in May of 2018 after spending time at the United States Olympic Committee and USA Swimming where she worked in communications and social media, covering events like the 2018 Winter Olympics and 2017 FINA World Championships. Before her time out in Colorado Springs, Olson worked for the University of Minnesota Athletic Communications department throughout her undergraduate career and as a postgraduate assistant. During that time, Olson covered Gopher swimming and diving for three seasons. Olson earned a B.A. from the University of Minnesota in journalism in 2016. She is a native of Champlin, Minn., and currently resides in Minneapolis with her dog, Frankie.

Hampel joins the Gophers from Southern Illinois University, where he spent the 2024-25 season as the Assistant Swimming Coach. During his time with the Saluk...

Zach Mertens joined the Minnesota coaching staff as an assistant coach in August of 2023. Mertens joined the Gophers after spending six seasons on the swimming and diving coaching staff at Drury University in Springfield, Mo. Mertens served as a full-time assistant for five seasons with the Panthers. In 2022-23 he helped guide the men's swimming and diving team to an NCAA Division II runner-up finish as well as national championships in five events. The Drury women's team finished fourth in the country and won the GLVC Championship. The Panthers' 2021 men's team featured Karol Ostrowski, who was named GLVC Freshman of the Year and competed for Poland in the Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2021. Mertens graduated from Ouachita Baptist University in 2014 with a degree in History and Political Science and was named to the Academic All-NSISC Team in 2013 and 2014. Mertens was also a Jean K. Freeman Scholar with the CSCAA in 2022. The Jean Freeman Scholarship is given annually to six collegiate assistant coaches whose exceptional contributions have brought recognition to their institution, and whose leadership, integrity, honesty, competitive attitude and personal graciousness epitomize those characteristics reflected by Jean Freeman.

Hawley joins the Gophers from New Mexico State Aggies, where he helped lead all aspects of their diving program, including recruiting, training, culture development, and meet operations. During his time with the Aggies, he played a major role in developing the program's first ever NCAA Zone Diving finalist. "Zach is a very accomplished diving coach, and we are fortunate to have him join our program this fall! It will be a lot of fun watching Wenbo and Zach team up to help our divers reach their full potential!" said Director of Swimming and Diving, Kelly Kremer. Before New Mexico State, Hawley spent nine seasons as the Head Diving Coach at George Mason University where he was a three-time Atlantic-10 Diving Coach of the Year. At George Mason, he also played a part in developing four conference champions and an NCAA qualifier. He also coached three A-10 Diver of the Year award recipients and led 13 individuals to Division I NCAA Zone Qualifiers. Hawley made quite a name for himself while in Fairfax, Virginia, as he also was the owner and head coach of the Mason Dive Academy which provides a dive program for athletes of all ages and skill levels. Coach Hawley made it his mission to build and develop strong, successful and confident young individuals in the sport of diving with the ultimate goal of getting these values to carry over to other facets of life. Prior to his tenure at George Mason, Hawley spent two years with South Dakota State University as a graduate assistant wher