UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.- Penn State Swim and Dive announces Ethan Curl will join head coach Hollie Bonewit-Cron's staff as an assistant coach. Curl arrives in Happy Valley with a plethora of experience at the division I level after a decorated career as a swimmer himself at Indiana University.
"I am excited to welcome Ethan to Penn State," said Bonewit-Cron. "He has Big Ten experience as a student-athlete and brings a high level of ambition in recruiting and coaching which will translate into a successful future for our program. I'm looking forward to working with him to evolve the team to be highly competitive in the Big Ten and on the national stage."
Curl heads to Penn State after spending the most recent season as an assistant swimming and diving coach and recruiting coordinator at Ohio University. In his time with the Bobcats he was responsible for implementing, fostering and maintaining positive team culture among other duties. He also assisted in designing workouts and season plans for all training groups while leading the recruiting of all athletes. Curl helped guide three individual conference champions, four first team All-MAC honorees and two second team All-MAC members. He also coached the 2024 MAC Freshman of the Year and helped Ohio secure its first NCAA qualifier in over a decade.
Prior to his time in Ohio, Curl served as an assistant coach at Indiana University Purdue University (IUPUI) from 2021-23. He led the middle-distance and distance freestyle groups as well as the group off 400 IM swimmers. In his final season at IUPUI, both the men's and women's squads were Horizon League runner ups and had six NIC Qualifiers including an event champion who secured a meet record. Curl also assisted in coaching 15 conference champions, six Horizon League records broken and 42 team records achieved.
Curl was the primary coach of Emmaleigh Zietlow, a five-time Horizon League individual conference champion, 2022 Horizon League Women's Freshman of the Year and 2023 Horizon League Co-Female Swimmer of the Meet. He was also the lead coach of Gabby Puryear-Lynch, a 2023 Horizon League Women's Freshman of the Year as well as Logan Kelly, a three-time Horizon League individual conference champion and NCAA qualifier as the first in program history.
The experienced coach spent one season as the volunteer assistant coach at the University of Kentucky. During his time at UK, he helped guide the women to their first program SEC Championship in the 2020-21 season.
Curl was a four-year student-athlete at Indiana, a fellow Big Ten institution, from 2014-18. He specialized in distance freestyle and was a member of two Bug Ten Conference Championship squads. In his final season, he helped his team to a third-place finish overall in the NCAA. In 2016, Curl qualified for the Olympic Trials and in 2017 qualified for World Championship Trials.
