Staff Directory
- Title:
- Head Coach, Swimming & Diving
- Email:
- Phone:
- 412-515-7607
Chase Kreitler enters his third season at the University of Pittsburgh after being named head coach in April 2022. Kreitler brings a sparkling championship resume to Pitt following a highly accomplished four-year tenure as a men’s assistant at Cal under six-time National Coach of the Year David Durden.
Kreitler accepted the head coaching position at the University of Pittsburgh with the vision of building a championship culture well beyond the pool. The future of the program looks bright as Pitt recorded one of the most successful campaigns in the last two decades during his first year at the helm of the program.
The 2023-24 season saw diver Cameron Cash become a two-time ACC Champion, three Panthers win ACC medals, 10 NCAA qualifiers, 15 school records broken, and five U.S. Olympic Trials qualifiers.
The Panthers had a successful postseason, beginning with the 2024 ACC Championships in Greensboro, N.C. Pitt secured seventh place overall to tie Pitt's highest team finish with their 647 total team points. Kreitler coached senior Max Matteazzi to a silver medal in the men's 400 IM finals as the Panthers had 22 event finalists, including eight reach the A Finals. Pitt sent six swimmers and divers to the NCAA Championships and finished tied for 24th in the team standings, tying the 2002 team for the highest finish at the Championships in the last 86 years.
The women’s team saw seven school records shattered at the 2024 ACC Championships. The team comprised of Yendell, Jansen, Sydney Gring and Avery Kudlac secured the highest relay finish in Pitt’s ACC history after placing fifth (1:29.09) in the 200 free relay. The women’s 400 medley relay also broke the school record at the ACC Championships with their 3:35.15 while the 400 free relay team sketched their names in the record books after clocking a time of 3:15.92.
At the women’s NCAA Championships, four Panthers represented Pitt in Athens, Ga. Senior Sophie Yendell recorded the highest NCAA finish since 2017 after finishing 17th overall in the 100 fly (51.35). The Tamworth, England native also competed in the 50 free (20th, 21.95). Freshman Mariana Osorio Mendoza made her NCAA debut this year as one of ten freshmen to qualify across all diving events. She finished third highest on platform out of all freshman competitors on the event.
At the NCAA Diving Zone Championships, Mendoza secured first place while Vega earned second on the platform competition to earn their spots at the NCAA Championships.
Throughout the 2022-23 season, the Panthers saw 31 program records broken, 15 student-athletes qualify for the 2023 NCAA championships, five individuals earn All-American honors, and two divers qualify for the 2024 U.S. Olympic trials.
The men's 400 medley relay team became the first Pitt relay to score at the NCAA Championship since 2002 after finishing 16th overall and breaking the school record in the event. Pitt was also represented on the international stage as Sophie Yendell claimed gold in the 50 Fly at the British Championships and Marcin Goraj won a bronze medal in the 100-meter backstroke at the Polish Nationals.
Under his direction, Pitt had 15 qualifiers for the NCAA Championships, the most in recent memory for the program. Sophie Yendell, Claire Jansen and diver Jess Vega all represented Pitt in Knoxville, Tenn. at the women’s championship, while 12 Pitt men traveled to Minneapolis, Minn. for the men’s championship.
In Knoxville, Yendell finished 18th overall in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 22.02, marking the highest NCAA finish by a women’s swimmer in the last six years. Vega finished 25th overall in the women’s platform while Jansen became the first freshman swimmer to represent Pitt at the NCAA Championships since 2006.
The men's 400-yard medley relay team comprised of Krzysztof Radziszewski, Cooper Van der Laan, Marcin Goraj, and Dominic Toldeo and finished 16th overall and broke their own school record with a time of 3:05.72 at the Men’s NCAA Championship, earning NCAA Honorable Mention All-American status.
Van der Laan earned individual Honorable Mention All-American honors at the Championships with a 16th overall finish in the 100-yard breaststroke.
Out of the pool, the Panthers excelled in the classroom with 29 student-athletes being named to the All-ACC Academic Team and 14 student-athletes achieved perfect 4.0 GPAs between the fall and spring semesters.
During his time at Cal, the Golden Bears won two NCAA Championships (2022 and 2019) and finished as the 2021 national runner-up. Cal also dominated the ultra-competitive Pac-12, winning the conference championship each year.
Under Kreitler’s influence, Cal student-athletes achieved 184 All-America swims, 14 NCAA titles (nine individual and five relay) and 54 Pac-12 championships (38 individual and 16 relay).
Kreitler, a U.S. National Team coach each year since 2018, also has a lengthy list of pupils who are accomplished at the international level. He worked with seven 2020 Olympians, including Ryan Murphy, who won Gold (400 medley relay), Silver (200 backstroke) and Bronze (100 backstroke) in Tokyo, and Tom Shields, who also won Gold as part of the 400-medley relay.
Another competitor at those Tokyo Olympics, Andrew Seliskar, was the 2019 NCAA Swimmer of the Year and 2018 USA National Champion in the 200 freestyle. Seliskar finished his Cal career as a three-time NCAA champion (200 individual medley, 200 freestyle and 200 breaststroke).
Kreitler’s additional international experience includes assistant coach appointments at the World University Games (2019) and Pan Pacific Championships (2018).
Prior to California, Kreitler was a volunteer assistant coach for the women’s swimming and diving team at Stanford (2018), serving under head coach Greg Meehan, who led the United States women’s Olympic team in 2020, and associate head coach Tracy Slusser. While at Stanford he had the opportunity to assist in coaching Olympic Gold Medalists Katie Ledecky and Simone Manuel, two-time Olympic Medalist Lia Neal as well as NCAA champion Ella Eastin.
Kreitler spent two seasons (2016-18) as the men’s volunteer assistant at Texas, working for the legendary Eddie Reese, a three-time Olympic head coach who led the Longhorns to 15 NCAA titles. Texas won consecutive NCAA team championships in Kreitler’s two seasons in Austin as the Longhorns’ swimmers compiled 14 national titles (10 individual and four relays), eight NCAA records and seven American records.
Kreitler served as an assistant coach at Louisiana State University for three seasons (2013-16). He oversaw the development of seven swimmers who set LSU records and helped increase the Tigers’ number of Olympic Trials qualifiers from seven in 2012 to 17 in 2016.
From 2011-13, Kreitler was an assistant coach at Eastern Michigan University, helping the men’s team win consecutive Mid-American Conference (MAC) titles. The men’s and women’s programs combined to break 20 team records during his tenure. In both seasons at EMU, Brianna Emig and Jacob Hanson were NCAA qualifiers. Hanson placed fourth in the 200 backstroke at the 2013 NCAA Championships.
While in Ypsilanti, Kreitler coached for Club Wolverine, a nationally accomplished USA Swimming program that captured the 2013 Central Zone Sectional championship.
Kreitler’s initial coaching appointment came at California State University, Bakersfield—his alma mater—where he was an assistant coach for two seasons (2009-11). The Roadrunners won the 2011 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation championship, their first Division I conference title.
A four-year swimmer at CSU Bakersfield (2005-09), Kreitler was elected a team captain his senior year.
He earned his bachelor’s degree in exercise science from California State University, Bakersfield in 2010 and his master’s degree in exercise physiology from Eastern Michigan in 2014.
Kreitler and his wife Liz have two sons: John Daniel, who was born in February 2022, and Calvin, who was born in January 2024. The family includes their beloved dog, Jazz.
