Swimming & Diving
- Title:
- Head Coach, Diving
- Alma Mater:
- Leeds University, 2005
- Email:
- khazelton@athletics.pitt.edu
- Phone:
- 412-418-5779
Katie Kasprzak (formerly Katie Hazelton) enters her eighth season as the head diving coach after joining the University of Pittsburgh staff in June 2017.
In seven seasons with the Panthers, Kasprzak earned 2024 ACC Men’s Diving Coach of the Year and has coached 12 Pitt divers to qualification to the prestigious NCAA Championships, Cameron Cash to ACC Diver of the Year, and coached diver Dylan Reed to four medals at the ACC Championships and to become the first member of the Pitt diving program to garner an invitation to Team USA.
In 2023-24, Kasprzak was named the ACC Men’s Diving Coach of the Year and became the first female coach to earn an ACC men's or women's Swimming and Diving Coach of the Year accolade. Kasprzak was also just one of three female head diving coaches with participants in both the men’s and women’s 2024 NCAA Championships.
Kasprzak coached Cameron Cash to his most successful season, earning NCAA All-American honors on the 3-meter and Honorable Mention All-American honors on the platform. Cash finished fourth overall on the 3-meter and ninth overall in the Platform Consolation Finals at the NCAA Championships.
Cash secured gold on both the platform and 3-meter while earning the Most Valuable Diver award at the ACC Championships. Outside of the pool, Cash was also named the ACC Scholar-Athlete of the Year with a 3.794 cumulative GPA with a major in biological sciences.
In addition to coaching Cash to two ACC titles, Kasprzak also coached Dylan Reed to earn a silver medal on both the 1-meter and the 3-meter and Jackson Salisbury to a fifth-place finish on the platform
Kasprzak had a combined 12 divers qualify for the NCAA Diving Zone A Championships, including having four male divers qualify on all three boards. The men's diving team also saw four divers qualify for the 2024 NCAA Championships.
In 2022-23, Kasprzak coached four divers to qualify for the 2023 NCAA Championships and had 11 divers qualify for a combined 35 events for the NCAA Diving Zone A Championships – the most in program history.
Dylan Reed won a bronze medal in the men’s 3-meter and qualified for the 2024 Olympic Trials at the ACC Championships in Greensboro, N.C. Cameron Cash placed first overall in the preliminary round in the platform competition at the ACC Championships with a total score of 353.85 and finished fourth overall in finals. Cash also claimed third place overall in the men's 3-meter event at the NCAA Diving Zones to secure an Olympic Trial Cut.
During the 2021-22 season, Kasprzak had seven Panthers qualify for the ACC Championships and coached three divers to qualify for all three events at the NCAA Championships. The trio of Cameron Cash, Dylan Reed, and Amy Read joined alum Dominic Giordano as the only four Pitt divers to compete at NCAAs in all three events.
Kasprazak saw Amy Read etch her name in the Pitt history books, as Read became the first diver in Pitt history to make four straight NCAA Championship appearances. Read is a two-time school record holder in the platform, was named the 2021-22 Blue-Gold Award Winner and had her name engraved on the Pitt Varsity Walk.
“We pride our program on an athlete-first approach,” Kasprzak said. “Through a culture of hard work, determination and persistence, we challenge our student-athletes to reach their full potential. We are passionate about creating an ideal environment to succeed, balancing disciplined diving training with exceptional academic and professional support.”
One of the defining characteristics of Kasprzak’s leadership has been the recruitment and success of instant-impact divers. Each of the past three seasons, a true freshman diver has scored for Pitt in multiple events at the ACC Championships, with two newcomers qualifying for the NCAA Championships.
The 2019-20 campaign provided a great example of the progress that the program is making under Kasprzak’s experienced leadership. Two sophomore Pitt divers – Serena Buchwald and Amy Read – both qualified for the NCAA Championships on platform before the national meet was unfortunately canceled due to the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic. For that outstanding achievement, both Buchwald and Read received All-America status from the CSCAA in 2020, while Buchwald received All-ACC Academic honors.
Despite not having the opportunity to chase NCAA finals, Read’s successful second season concluded with her advancing to the platform championship final at the ACC Championships followed by winning the platform title at the NCAA Zone Diving Meet in Morgantown, W.Va.
Incredibly, nine Pitt divers qualified for and competed at the zonal meet in 2020.
Further highlighting the quality and quantity of student-athletes being recruited and developed by Coach Kasprzak five Pitt divers scored team points at the 2020 ACC Championships in Greensboro, N.C., including impressive men’s diving freshman Dylan Reed. Thanks to a focus on excelling on platform, three Pitt women’s divers – Buchwald, Read and Krista Jones – placed top 15 individually in the event, helping the Panthers score 57 points to lead all ACC programs.
Hazelton’s third season also remarkably resulted in every Pitt diver setting at least one personal record, with seven Panthers incredibly improving their top scores in multiple disciplines.
In her second season, Kasprzak’s 2018-19 squad succeeded in developing a team culture that aided in producing great results throughout the year. Leading the way for the Panthers, Read and Jones each regularly won individual events in dual meets, and both broke the Pitt women’s platform diving school record during the campaign.
Hailing from England, the same native nation as Hazelton, Read’s debut at national resulted in her finishing as one of the top freshman performers at the 2019 NCAA Championships. Placing 36th on platform and 41st on 3-meter in her debut at the national meet, Read was one of just six freshmen to compete on both platform and springboard in 2019.
The 2017-18 campaign, Hazleton’s first with the Panthers, saw Pitt’s top divers excel at some of the most prestigious meets in the country.
The highlight of Hazelton’s first season in Pittsburgh, senior Meme Sharp won the USA Diving Winter Nationals 1-meter title and qualified for her third consecutive NCAA Championships on both springboards, while Lydia Rosenthall also qualified for an ACC championship final on 3-meter springboard and advanced to the NCAA Championships.
Sharp, who earned an ACC Postgraduate Scholarship and accepted an ACC Futures Internship with the Orange Bowl in Miami following her graduation, bested her 1-meter school record during her standout senior year under Hazelton and scored in all three events at the 2018 ACC Championships.
A native of Harpenden, England, Hazelton joined the Panthers after four-and-a-half years as the head coach of the Duke Diving Club in Durham, N.C. During her time at the helm of the program, Hazelton guided the Duke Diving Club to unprecedented success.
Under her reign, Duke divers won more than 10 national titles at youth levels and eight individuals went on to earn scholarships at Texas, NC State, North Carolina, Ohio State, California, Indiana, Purdue and Pitt. In 2014, USA Diving recognized Duke Diving as its most improved club throughout the country.
"We are thrilled to welcome Katie Hazelton to the Panther coaching staff,” Lyke said. “Katie brings solid knowledge and experience as a product of elite level diving and coaching. Her demeanor and focus on building great relationships with her athletes were evident during the interview process. We are confident she is going to help continue our swimming and diving program on the right trajectory."
Prior to her coaching career in the United States, Kasprzak spent time as the diving technical operations manager for the organizing committee for the 2012 London Olympic and Paralympic Games. In this role, she spent a full year managing and organizing the diving events for the Games of the XXX Olympiad in London, ensuring the event was conducted in accordance with international rules and regulations.
A 2005 sports science and physiology graduate of Leeds University, Kasprzak is also a USA Diving certified coach. From 2010-11, she worked as an aquatics officer with the British swimming and diving governing body, the Amateur Swimming Association (ASA), having previously served as a diving talent development officer with the organization from 2007-10.
Hazelton’s parents, Brian and Jackie, were both international diving coaches and judges, and they introduced her to the sport at the age of 5 at Luton Kingfishers outside of London. She won numerous diving national titles at the youth level in the U.K. before retiring from diving as a 17-year-old.
Kasprzak lives in Pittsburgh with her husband Alex Kasprzak and two daughters, Elva and Francesca.
