The University of Hawaii has named Marcus Guttmann as the interim head coach of the school’s swimming & diving program. This comes after months of reports that the program had placed Elliot Ptasnik on an unexplained leave of absence.
Ptasnik’s name had renamed on the team’s website until recently, when Guttmann was added as interim head coach.
The school has repeatedly ignored requests for more information.
Ptasnik took over the program in summer 2019 when Dan Schemmel was hired away by Stanford to lead the men’s team. He kept the program’s success going, leading both the men’s and women’s team to MPSF conference titles in 2020. For the men, that included a conference-record 895.50 points.
The women won again in 2021, while the men fell to BYU. The women’s title streak now stands at 5 consecutive MPSF titles, while it snapped a two-year streak for the men’s team.
The team will now be led by Marcus Guttmann, who is another holdover from the Schemmel era. He joined the program prior to the 2016-2017 season. He came to the program from the Badger Aquatics Club in Madison, Wisconsin, from 2013-2016, where he also coached alongside Schemmel.
Guttman swam collegiately at Wisconsin from 2009 through 2013, where Schemmel was his coach for his last two seasons. He competed in the 400 free, 1500 free, and 200 fly at the 2012 U.S. Olympic Trials.
2021-2022 Hawaii Coaching Staff:
Interim head coach – Marcus Guttman
Head diving coach – Mike Brown
Assistant swimming coach – Nick Folker
Assistant swimming coach – Taylor Garcia
Assistant swimming coach – Micah Masei
Assistant diving coach – Anita Rossing
Also joining the staff this season is Micah Masei, who was a member of the varsity squad last season. The MPSF All-Academic Team and MPSF Second Team member represented American Samoa at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
Hawaii is scheduled to kick off its 2021-2022 season on October 22 and 23 with a double dual against Arizona and Wisconsin.
Originally posted on SwimSwam.com. Click here to Read More.