UC San Diego Swimming Welcomes Two to Coaching Workers

LA JOLLA, Calif. –  Under Head Coach Marko Djordjevic, two new coaches be part of the UC San Diego Swimming workers. Matt Martinez joins as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator, Molly Spano as an assistant coach.
 
Martinez joins the UC San Diego swimming workers after serving on the teaching staffs on the University of Kentucky, the University of Wisconsin and the University of California, Berkeley.
 
Prior to becoming a member of UC San Diego, Martinez spent the 2025-26 season as an assistant coach on the University of Kentucky, the place he assisted with each day coaching, technical growth, championship meet preparation and recruiting for the Wildcats. During his time in Lexington, Kentucky’s males’s program posted its highest NCAA Championship end in additional than 15 years whereas setting 10 faculty data.
 
Before arriving at Kentucky, Martinez served as assistant coach and recruiting coordinator on the University of Wisconsin from 2022-25. He performed a key function in restructuring the Badgers’ recruiting technique, serving to safe two top-15 nationally ranked males’s recruiting lessons that included two USA Swimming Junior National Champions. Martinez labored extensively with Wisconsin’s breaststroke group, and in 2025 the Badgers’ ladies’s breaststrokers turned the highest-scoring breaststroke unit on the Big Ten Championships. During his tenure, the Wisconsin males’s staff recorded the 2 greatest Big Ten Championship finishes in program historical past. Martinez labored with NCAA finalist and college file holder Jake Newmark and collaborated intently with Olympian and NCAA champion Phoebe Bacon, contributing to her qualification for each the 2024 Paris Olympic Games within the 200-meter backstroke and the 2025 World Championships within the 200 particular person medley.
 
Prior to Wisconsin, Martinez spent the 2021-22 season as a volunteer assistant coach at UC Berkeley. He was a member of the teaching workers that captured each the NCAA and Pac-12 staff championships whereas serving as the first coach for Cal’s breaststroke group, which was the highest-scoring breaststroke unit on the 2022 NCAA Championships. During his time with the Golden Bears, Martinez labored with NCAA champions Hugo Gonzalez and Destin Lasco, in addition to Olympians Ryan Murphy and Jack Alexy, whereas helping with technical evaluation and championship preparation.
 
Before returning to the collegiate ranks, Martinez coached with Warringah Aquatic Swim Club in Sydney, Australia, the place he served because the lead coach for the membership’s prime age-group coaching squad. His expertise in Australia supplied the chance to educate in one of many world’s premier swimming nations whereas serving to develop age-group athletes in a extremely aggressive membership surroundings.
 
Martinez earned a Master of Arts in Student Personnel Administration from Saint Louis University in 2017 after receiving a Bachelor of Arts in Interdisciplinary Studies from Arizona State University in 2014. A local of Walnut Creek, California, Matt and his spouse, Sara, have two canine, Mondo and Ronnie.
 
Spano joins the UC San Diego swimming workers after two seasons as an assistant coach at Swarthmore College. During her time with the Garnet, she helped the ladies’s staff win back-to-back Centennial Conference Championships, 2024-25 (4th) and 2025-26 (fifth), and the boys’s staff to its fourth consecutive Centennial Conference Championship in 2024-25.
 
Over her two seasons at Swarthmore, this system certified 20 swimmers for the NCAA Division III Championships, earned 68 All-America honors (15 First Team, 53 Second Team), established 40 new faculty data, and noticed 182 instances enter the applications all-time prime ten data. She additionally spent the previous 4 summers as a coach on the University of Texas Swim Camps.
 
As a student-athlete, Spano earned 4 All-ODAC honors throughout her graduate season on the University of Lynchburg in 2024 after gathering 5 All-SCAC honors at Southwestern University in 2022 and 2023. She turned the primary swimmer in Southwestern historical past to earn First Team All-SCAC honors within the 400 IM and continues to carry the college file within the occasion. She additionally stays the holder of six faculty data on the University of Lynchburg.
 
Spano earned her bachelor’s diploma in Kinesiology with a minor in Exercise Sports Studies from Southwestern University in 2023 earlier than finishing her grasp’s diploma in enterprise administration with an emphasis on sports activities administration at University of Lynchburg in 2025.
 
 
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“It is with great pleasure to announce Matt Martinez as the newest member of the UC San Diego Tritons Swimming family, joining our staff as top assistant coach and recruiting coordinator,” Djordjevic states. “Matt brings outstanding experience from Power Four programs and a proven track record in athlete development, recruiting, and building championship-caliber teams. His knowledge and energy will be tremendous assets as we continue to elevate our program. I am excited to welcome Matt to the Triton family and look forward to the impact he will have on our student-athletes and our continued rise to the next level.”
 
“I am very excited to introduce Molly Spano as the newest assistant coach of UC San Diego Swimming program! Molly is a passionate coach who brings outstanding energy, a commitment to student-athlete development, and valuable experience in coaching, recruiting, and program operations. Her enthusiasm, work ethic, and dedication to building meaningful relationships will make her an exceptional addition to our staff. I am excited for everything she will do to help our program continue its upward trajectory.”
 
“I am grateful for the time I spent at Swarthmore College, the mentors who shaped me, and the relationships I developed with my Swat Swim family. I am excited to join the Triton Swimming Family and translate my passion for high academic and athletic performance to the UC San Diego community,” Spano states. “Thank you, Andy Fee, Danielle Melman, and Marko Djordjevic or this opportunity. I am excited to help continue the tradition of excellence at UC San Diego. Go Tritons!”
 

About UC San Diego Athletics

After twenty years as some of the profitable applications in NCAA Division II, the UC San Diego intercollegiate athletics program has begun a brand new period as a member of The Big West in NCAA Division I. The 24-sport Tritons earned 30 staff and practically 150 particular person nationwide championships throughout its time in Divisions II and III and helped information 1,400 scholar-athletes to All-America honors. A complete of 84 Tritons have earned Academic All-America honors, whereas 38 have garnered prestigious NCAA Post Graduate Scholarships. UC San Diego scholar-athletes exemplify the educational beliefs of one of many world’s preeminent establishments, graduating at a median fee of 90 p.c, the very best fee amongst public establishments in NCAA Division I or II. For extra info on the Tritons, go to UCSDtritons.com or comply with UC San Diego Athletics on social media @UCSDtritons.