WEST VIRGINIA UNIVERSITY SWIMMING & DIVING
RICK WEST ASSISTANT COACH 7TH SEASON AT WEST VIRGINIA
Rick West enters his seventh year as an assistant coach for the WVU swimming and diving teams. West assists head coach Vic Riggs in all aspects of the program, including day-to-day operations, recruiting and academics. The 2020-21 season was shortened down to three regular season meets, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but that didn’t stop the West Virginia from seeing success. The season was highlighted by senior, David Dixon, becoming the first Mountaineer from the men’s team to earn a bid to four consecutive appearances at the NCAA Swimming & Diving Championships. Dixon finished 12th in the 200 butterfly at NCAA’s to earn Honorable Mention All-America Honors. Additionally, he represented WVU at the 2021 U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials in the 200-meter butterfly and 200-meter IM. At the 2021 Big 12 Championships, the men finished second and the women
finished fourth. They tallied a pair of program records (200 women’s freestyle relay) and collected 11 medals (four silver and seven bronze). Nine Mountaineers earned a spot on the All-Big 12 First Team, while 12 were recognized on All-Big 12 second team. During the 2020-21 campaign, both squads were named CSCAA Scholar AllAmerican teams and forty Mountaineers were named to the 2021 Academic All-Big 12 Swimming & Diving Team. Seniors, Kayla Gagnon and Ryan Van Wyk, were named recipients of the Dr. Gerald Lage Academic Achievement Award. West continues to help lead WVU to academic success. In West Virginia’s first season in its new facility at the Aquatic Center at Mylan Park in 2019-20, West helped the program through several milestones. The Mountaineers hosted a mid-season invitational and the Big 12 Swimming and Diving Championship for the first time in program history, while a pair of men’s program records were broken at the hands of David Dixon (200 butterfly) and Hunter Armstrong (200 freestyle). The men’s team also finished the regular season with just one dual-meet loss, before placing second at the Big 12 Championship. The women’s team placed second at the conference meet. The Mountaineers collected 11 total medals at the conference meet, including five silver and six bronze. Dixon and Armstrong also qualified for the 2020 NCAA Championships. Despite the cancellation of the championships due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the duo earned CSCAA All-America distinction after the CSCAA Board of Directors altered the selection criteria. In addition to their success in the pool, West helped guide the team to success in the classroom as well. Thirty-one Mountaineers were named to the 2020 Academic All-Big 12 Team, with seven
WEST AT A GLANCE BORN: August 25 HOMETOWN: Moundsville, West Virginia ALMA MATER: West Liberty State College COACHING EXPERIENCE: 2015-Present 2012-2015 2007-12 2003-04 2002-03 2002 2001-02 2000-01 1996-2000
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student-athletes earning the distinction with perfect 4.0 grade-point averages. Additionally, seniors Ryan Kelly and Jack Portmann were named recipients of the Dr. Gerald Lage Academic Achievement Award. West was a part of another successful campaign in 2018-19, guiding the Mountaineers to impressive conference and national performances. Sophomore David Dixon earned two Big 12 individual championships in the 100 and 200 butterfly in 2019, becoming the first Mountaineer to earn multiple victories at the event since 2014. The Mountaineer men finished in second place at the conference meet, while the women finished in third. Additionally, WVU qualified three swimmers to the 2019 NCAA Championships, including senior Jake Armstrong, junior Morgan Bullock and Dixon. West Virginia broke eight swimming school records in 2018-19, all of which came at the 2019 Big 12 Championship. The Mountaineers also accomplished milestones in the classroom in addition to the pool, as the two squads were again named CSCAA Scholar All-America teams in the fall and spring semesters. Seven student-athletes were named CSCAA Scholar All-America Individuals, while 29 made the Academic All-Big 12 Team. Junior Ryan Kelly became WVU’s fifth Big 12 Men’s Swimming and Diving Scholar Athlete of the Year. West assisted the Mountaineers to a highly successful 2017-18 campaign, where WVU shined on multiple levels and created plenty of momentum to carry into the future. For the first time since 2014, the Mountaineers featured multiple Big 12 individual champions, as juniors Jake Armstrong (100 breaststroke) and Tristen Di Sibio (200 breaststroke) took home gold medals at the 2018 Big 12 Championship. The Mountaineers went on to earn a pair of second-place team finishes at the conference meet. In all, WVU earned two gold, 16 silver and 12 bronze medals. WVU featured five swimmers who qualified for the NCAA Championships in 2017-18 – Armstrong, Morgan Bullock, Di Sibio, David Dixon and Emma Harris. For the men, it was the most swimmers to qualify for the national meet since 2014, while the two women’s qualifiers became WVU’s first since 2013. Armstrong and Bullock went on to grab honorable mention All-America honors at the national meets. Armstrong placed 14th overall in the 100 breaststroke (52.69), while Bullock finished 15th in the 200 butterfly (1:54.77).
