Craig Penrose is in his 13th season as the head coach of the men’s and women’s swimming and diving programs at Lindenwood. He also oversees Lindenwood’s seven-team Aquatics program which also includes men’s and women’s water polo and synchronized swimming.
Penrose started the swimming and diving teams in 1998 and the programs quickly made a name in NAIA Swimming and Diving. The women’s program has finished in the top 10 every year since 2000, including fourth-place finishes in 2006 and 2007. The men’s team has ten straight top 10 showings. The Lions were top five finishers from 2005-2008 nad again in 2010, including being the NAIA runner-up in 2006 and 2007.
Penrose has earned four NAIA Coach of the Year awards, including being the first coach to sweep the men’s and women’s honors in 2003. He also was named the men’s coach of the year in 2007 and 2010. Penrose was the president of the NAIA swimming committee from 2004-05 and he has also won the prestigious ASCA Coaching Excellence award for the past four years.
Under Penrose, Lindenwood has won 19 individual NAIA National Championships and 166 All-American honors, and 13 NAIA Scholar-Athletes. Jessica Metcalf still holds the 3m diving record that she set in 2000. Penrose has also led the effort for Lindenwood to host four NAIA National Championships, including the national championships this season.
Penrose has over two decades of experience in coaching, from age group coaching to the ranks of college coaching. He has coached two Olympians, two Olympic Trial qualifiers, a Master world record holder, along with over fifty national level athletes. He attained the highest level of swimming coaching available in United States, becoming ASCA Level 5 coach in 1992. Currently there are approximately 225 Level five coaches in the world.
Penrose is in his 26th year of coaching this year. He spent eight years at the Parkway Swim Club winning Age Group Championships six out of the eight years he was there. Penrose developed over 25 actual top 16 swimmers at Parkway. He won Coach of the Year honors for the YMCA in 1985 and for Parkway in 1989. Penrose started the Rec-Plex Sharks Swim Club in 1994. After amassing close to 300 swimmers at the Rec-Plex, he was approached to start the program at Lindenwood.
Penrose swam for Southeast Missouri State University from 1977-1981 and was a 4-year varsity letterman and team captain.
Penrose has earned the following degrees: bachelor’s degree in Commercial Art (BS), master’s degree in Business Administration (MBA), and a master’s degree in Human Services Management (MA). He is currently working on his Doctoral degree.
Craig Penrose’s Year-by-Year National Finishes
|
Year
|
Men’s National Finish
|
Women’s National Finish
|
|
1999
|
12th
|
13th
|
|
2000
|
---
|
8th
|
|
2001
|
8th
|
7th
|
|
2002
|
6th
|
6th
|
|
2003
|
7th
|
7th
|
|
2004
|
7th
|
8th
|
|
2005
|
5th
|
10th
|
|
2006
|
2nd
|
4th
|
|
2007
|
2nd
|
4th
|
|
2008
|
4th
|
7th
|
|
2009
|
7th
|
8th
|
| 2010 |
3rd |
10th |
