Mark de Swardt enters his second season as head coach of the swimming & diving program at John Carroll in the 2025-26 academic year.
In his first year leading the Blue Streaks, de Swardt guided JCU to the OAC Men's and Women's Championships. He mentored both the OAC's Most Outstanding Female Swimmer (Mairin Dalziel) and OAC's Most Outstanding Male Swimmer (Joe Nadur). He guided three relays plus a pair of individuals to qualifying for the NCAA Championships. JCU finished unbeaten against conference foes in the regular season. JCU compiled a men's dual record of 9-1 and a women's dual record of 7-3.
A native of Durban, South Africa, de Swardt brings nearly a decade of coaching experience after with a very successful Division I swimming career at nearby Cleveland State.
His coaching career began in his hometown in South Africa as Head Triathlon Coach for the Triathlon Training Academy. From 2016-21, de Swardt developed and implemented training programs for triathletes of all ages and abilities. Additionally from 2019-21, de Swardt served as an assistant swimming coach for the Seagulls Club.
Prior to the 2021-22 season, de Swardt returned to the States as a volunteer assistant coach at The Ohio State University. He helped in a variety of ways, including assisting with recruiting, providing individualized feedback to swimmers, and helping to run daily swim practices.
During the past two seasons, de Swardt coached at the University of Northern Colorado as an assistant. Over the past two seasons, he assisted with organizing and conducting practices, developed training plans, played a key role in recruiting, and aided with team travel and budgets.
In 2024, Northern Colorado finished fourth at the Western Athletic Conference Championships and in third at the 2023 WAC Championships.
Prior to his coaching career, de Swardt enjoyed a prolific collegiate career of his own. Over the course of his freshman campaign, de Swardt became one of the best distance swimmers in Cleveland State and Horizon League history. He won 32 races, including all three of his individual swims at the Horizon League Championships with titles in the 500 Free (4:26.00), 1000 Free (9:08.01) and 1,650 Free (15:02.06, NCAA "B" cut). De Swardt was unanimously selected as the league's Swimmer of the Meet, Swimmer of the Year and Newcomer of the Year after leading the meet in points scored (60). Both the 1000 and 1650 Free times were league and CSU records.
As a sophomore, de Swardt won the 1650 Free and 400 IM at the Horizon League Championship. As a junior, he notched the Horizon League’s Swimmer of the Year Award again. He missed the 2011-12 campaign, never easy to do, before roaring back for his redshirt senior season to nab Swimmer of the Meet honors. He graduated from Cleveland State in 2013.
De Swardt is the seventh full-time men's coach and eighth full-time women's coach in the history of the programs at John Carroll.
