Bio

Regan Nolan will begin her third season as Assistant Swimming Coach at Catawba College in the fall of 2024.

Nolan helped led the swim programs to new heights in the 2023-24 season, as both teams posted their highest finish at the SAC Championships in team history. The women reached 22 in the CSCAA poll, their first national ranking in program history and besting Division I Gardner-Webb in a dual meet. Not to be outdone by their successes in the pool. the women also earned the highest team GPA in the country for the third and fourth semesters in a row, while both teams recorded the most volunteer hours in the country. Marit Reckmann earned SAC Scholar-Athlete of the Year and Lillie Martin was the SAC Elite 23 Award winner in women's swimming.

The men finished as the SAC runners-up, helping Matthew Gearing earn SAC Male Swimming Coach of the Year, the first such honor of his career. The men earned the top GPA in Division II in the fall and third-best in the spring. Maks Minichowski earned Men's SAC Swimmer of the Year, while adding two All-American finishes at the NCAA Championships. Both teams upended nationally ranked Wingate in a dual meet, the first win over the Bulldogs for the women since 1999 and the first-ever win for the men over their conference foes.

In all, the teams combined to break 40 school records in 2023-24, with a total of 187 individual lifetime bests. The teams combined to take six SAC individual titles and send a program-record four swimmers to NCAA Nationals in Indianapolis.

In her first season as assistant coach, the Catawba men's and women's swim teams earned their highest conference meet finishes in program history and each were named Scholar All-America teams for the Fall and Spring.

Nolan, who swam at Catawba from 2017 to 2020, returned to Salisbury as assistant coach in October of 2022. She graduated Magna Cum Laude with her bachelor's degree in Business Administration. In her time as a student-athlete in the Catawba swimming program, Nolan was a two-time captain in 2019 and 2020, a two-time women's swim team MVP, and ranks top-10 all-time in the women's 500-meter freestyle, 1000-meter freestyle, and the 1650-meter freestyle.

"I could not be more excited to welcome Regan back to Salisbury," head coach Matthew Gearing said. "Getting alumni back involved in the program is a big goal of mine, and Regan is the perfect fit for where this program is headed over the coming years."

As a student-athlete, Nolan was also a Bluegrass Conference finalist, an All-Academic selection all four years of her swimming career and was a Whitener Award Finalist in 2019 and 2020.

Nolan was a member of the Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) program during her time as a student-athlete, and in 2018, she attended the FBLA National Convention where students from Catawba College presented on how strategic planning through social media can help bring prospective students to their respective institutions. Catawba's presenting team won the National Championship for their social media presentation that year which was also the first time Catawba College had won the award.

"Having graduated and been a leader of the program during her time as a student-athlete, she (Nolan) will have a direct impact on helping us provide the best experience we can and ultimately help us in our mission to develop tomorrow's leaders at Catawba today," added Gearing. "I am extremely excited to have her on campus and get to work!"

After her collegiate career, Nolan worked with Exercise Professional Education and Physicians Fitness as the Media and Marketing Director. In her role, Nolan worked alongside the company's CEO on business plans and led the company's strategic plans through social media. In her year-stint, Nolan helped grow Physicians Fitness' social media platforms overall outreach by 50%.