University of La Verne Athletic Director Julie Kline has announced the hiring of Pat Skehan as head men's and women's swimming and diving coach.

Skehan has spent the past 22 seasons as head women's swimming coach at Cal State Bakersfield.  During her tenure with the Roadrunners, she led the program from inception and successfully transformed it into one of the nation's top Division II programs. 

In that span, Skehan led Cal State Bakersfield to numerous Top 10 placings at the NCAA Division II Championships including a total of five Top 5 national finishes.  She guided the Roadrunner program to its best-ever placing with an NCAA Division II runner-up finish in 1998.  In addition, she coached 13 event national champions.  Moreover, she coached a total of seven athletes who earned NCAA Swimmer/Diver of the Year and coached the NCAA Division II Swimmer of the Decade in Lori Burton.

“Coach Skehan brings great passion and extensive experience to the Leopards swim and dive program.  Her ability to build and turn around programs is evident by her record of success at two previous institutions,” Kline said.  “We are extremely confident that the University of La Verne swim and dive program is in the right hands. We are excited about the new era and direction the program will be heading beginning with the 2011-12 season.”

Her Cal State Bakersfield teams also excelled in the classroom with a total of 18 team Academic All-Americans along with 12 individual Academic All-Americans and four NCAA Post Graduate Scholarships.

In addition to her head coaching duties, Skehan served as Aquatics Director at Cal State Bakersfield from 1998 to 2010, overseeing scheduling, staffing, management and operations of the John S. Hillman Aquatic Center.

"I'm excited to be coaching at a place like La Verne," said Skehan, who becomes just the second Leopard head swimming & diving coach in program history.  "I look forward to moving this program towards NCAA postseason competition."

Prior to her stint at Cal State Bakersfield, Skehan served as head women's swimming coach at the University of Rochester (1980-89).  While at Rochester, her squads scored at the NCAA Division III Championships each season.

Skehan begins her position immediately.