University of South Dakota Athletics

The 2023-24 season will be Jason Mahowald’s 19th as the head men's and women's swimming and diving coach at the University of South Dakota. Mahowald began his tenure in 2005-06 when the Coyotes were in Division II and has guided the program through the transition to Division I.

Mahowald began his coaching career by leading the women’s swimming and diving team to three-straight top-10 finishes at the NCAA Division II National Championships, including an eighth-place finish in 2005-06, which tied for the program’s best result. That same year, the women’s swimming and diving team was named an Academic All-American team by collegeswimming.com.

During the three-year stretch (2005-08) that Mahowald coached the Coyotes in Division II, he led the men’s and women’s teams to 29 All-America performances, 24 of which were individual performances.
 
Mahowald has received coach of the year honors three times. In 2006-07, Mahowald was named the North Central Conference Coach of the Year. In 2008-09, the one year the Coyotes spent in the Northern Sun Conference, Mahowald was named the NSIC Coach of the Year. That same year, he was also honored as one of the outstanding coaches for the season by the American Swimming Coaches Association and received the Coaching Excellence Award.
 
USD made the jump to Division I in 2009-10 and the swimming and diving teams joined the Summit League.

The 2022-23 season saw the Coyote women finish second and the men third at the Summit League Championships in Minneapolis. The women's team scored over 650 points for the fifth straight season while finishing second for the fourth time in those five years. The men's third-place finish snapped a string of five consecutive top two finishes. 

Emily Kahn became just the third Coyote swimmer in Summit League history to win two league titles in the same championships when she captured gold in the 50 free and 100 free. The women also won the 200 free relay in a school record 1:31.76 to snap a 47-race win streak in relays by Denver at the Summit League Championships. 

The Coyotes had 19 individuals earn All-Summit League honors, 10 women and nine men. Eight individuals earned Academic All-Summit League honors. 

It was the culmination of a banner season in 22-23 for the Coyotes as the team has 145 total lifetime best performances, 34 CSCAA National Qualifiers, 28 school records broken, 10 of them multiple times. The women's team earned Scholar All-America honors by the CSCAA in the fall and spring and were honored for the 17th straight semester while the men's team was honored as Scholar All-America for the 11th straight semester. 

The 2021-22 season saw both the Coyote men and women finish second in the Summit League Championships. The women with a school record 748 total points. A total of 22 individuals, 12 women and 10 men, earned All-Summit League honors while 10 individuals were named to the Academic All-Summit League team. 

Cassie Ketterling became the second Coyote swimmer ever to record two individual league title victories in the same Summit League Championships when she won the 100 IM and 400 IM, both in school record fashion. It was all part of special championships for Ketterling, who earned All-Summit League honors in all seven of her finals events, recording six school records in the process. 

Stella Fairbanks repeated as the one-meter champ and was named Diving Championship MVP at the Summit League Championships. She was named Summit League Diver of the Year, becoming the sixth Coyote women to earn that distinction. 

Zachary Kopp (50 free) and Mack Sathre (100 IM) each repeated as Summit League Champions and the men's squad captured the 200 free relay and 400 free relay.

Mahowald was named Summit League Men's Coach of the Year following the 2020-21 season as the Coyotes captured the school's first-ever Summit League championship when the men's team scored 915.5 points to win the title. Zachary Kopp was named the Summit League men's swimmer of the year as well as swimming championship MVP after securing five league titles (two individual, three relays) during the Summit championships in Fargo.

South Dakota had 27 individuals and eight relays earn All-Conference honors while the men's team won nine conference titles (six individual, three relays). Kopp won the 50 free and 100 back while Mack Sathre (100 IM), Charlie Bean (100 free) and Jake Leichner (200 breast) also claimed league titles. The men's team also won the 200 free relay, 200 medley relay and 400 free relay.

The Coyote women, third in the final Summit League Championships team standings with 663 points, saw Stella Fairbanks win the league title on the one-meter diving board.

The 2019-20 season saw coach Mahowald earn his 100th career dual win as a Coyote head coach as each team finished second in the Summit League Championships, the men for the third straight season and women for the second consecutive.

The Summit League Championships saw 20 individuals and nine relays earn All-Conference honors while Jake Leichner became the first Coyote to win an individual conference title.

Leichner’s win in the 100 IM broke a Denver 51 race win streak in male individual races.

The season saw 42 new marks on the Coyote Top 10 charts along with 10 school records, six individual and four relays. Ten individuals, Elbert Chuang, Josh Sorbe, Mark Vanderzee, Jacob Won, Jake Leichner, Haley Pederson, Lucie Anderson, Isabel Fairbanks, Jordyn Schnell, Sabrina Sabadeanu were named to the Academic All-Summit League team.

The men’s team recorded its most points to that point in Summit League Championship history with 706.5 while the women’s team surpassed 650 team points for the second straight season.

The 2018-19 season was a strong one for the Coyotes as the program claimed its first Summit League title in school history in swimming events with a win in the 800 free relay. Sarah Schank rounded out her career by sweeping the 1-meter and 3-meter diving events to earn Summit League Diving MVP and Summit League Diver of the Year. Isaac Morris won the 1-meter diving event to also been named Summit League Diving MVP and Summit League Diver of the Year.

Overall, the Coyotes had 14 individuals and eight relays earn All-Conference honors with top 3 finishes. The season as a whole saw 63 new marks on the Coyote Top 10 charts along with 23 school records, 14 individual and nine relays. Five individuals, Elbert Chuang, Isaac Morris, Josh Sorbe, Hannah Gupton and Haley Pederson were named to the Academic All-Summit League team. Sorbe and Pederson also earned CoSIDA All-District Academic honors.

The women's team recorded its highest finish ever in the Summit League Championships while also surpassing the 600 point mark in the event for the first time with a then-program best 676.

During the 2017-18 season, the Coyote men finished second in the Summit League Championships for the school's highest-ever placing while the men's team also scored 695 points, the most in the school's Summit League history. A total of 10 individuals and seven relays earned All-Conference honors, led by Summit League titles from divers Isaac Morris (one-meter and three-meter) and Haley Pederson (three-meter). 
 
During the 2016-17 season, Mahowald helped the men’s and women’s teams set 16 school records, 106 season-best performances, and 82 lifetime performances. 
 
Throughout his career, Mahowald has coached 51 individuals and 11 relay teams to conference titles in the NCC, NSIC and the Summit. A total of 58 athletes, 30 women and 28 men, have been named to the All-Academic Team in the Summit League while four were named to All-Academic NCC and NSIC teams. Swimmer Elizabeth Hoffman was named Academic All-District in 2009-10 and 2011-12. Swimmer Colin Krysl joined Hoffman on the 2011-12 team.
 
Mahowald led diver Jill Smolczyk to the Coyotes’ first-ever Division II national title as she won the one-meter dive in 2007-08. She was selected to the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District Women’s At-Large team in 2006-07 and 2007-08. Smolczyk was also named Outstanding Diver at the NCC Championships in 2007-08.
 
Mahowald helped coach diver Greysen Hertting to three straight one-meter and three-meter Summit League diving championship titles from 2013-16. Hertting was named the Women’s Diving Championship MVP for three consecutive seasons (2013-16) and Summit League Diver of the Year all four years. She is only the third student-athlete in Summit League history to win a yearly award four times. Hertting won 16 event titles and collected seven Diver of the Week awards during the 2016-17 season, finishing her career with a record 32 Diver of the Week awards.
 
Also earning awards under Mahowald are: Scott Bruce who was named Men’s NCC Newcomer of the Year in 2005-06, Smolczyk was the Diver of the Year for the NCC in 2006-07, Leita Rolfe was named Co-Outstanding Swimmer of the NCC Championships in 2007-08, Thad Stoddard was named Male Freshman Swimmer of the Year in the NSC for 2008-09 and Emilie Kluth was named to the 2007-08 ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District Women’s At-Large Team.
 
Mahowald earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Wisconsin-Stevens Point (2002) where he was a four-year letter winner and swimming and diving team captain. He received a master's degree in sports administration from Ball State University (2005). As assistant swimming coach (graduate assistant) at Ball State from August 2003 prior to his arrival at USD in 2005, Mahowald conducted workouts, arranged travels needs, and served as a recruiter for the program. He served as an assistant swim camp director (2004) at Ball State and was the Longhorn Swim Camp Coach at the University of Texas (2001, 2003) where he worked with Olympic Coach Eddie Reese and World Championship Coach Jill Sterkel.
 
While in high school, Mahowald was a national top-16 swimmer for the Hastings-Area Swim Team in Minnesota.
 
Mahowald and his wife, Melanie, live in Vermillion with their daughter, Addelle, and sons Luke, Bridger and Ryker.