The Cal State East Bay women’s swimming team made a splash out of Pioneer Pool last week.

CSUEB fifth year Head Coach Ben Loorz announced the addition of a new Assistant Coach Karissa Kruszewski. She joins a squad that finished in third place this past season at the Pacific Collegiate Swim and Dive Conference Championships in February.

“We did a national search for this coaching position, and Coach Kruszewski was one of our front-runners from the very beginning of the process,” Loorz said. “I did not know her beforehand, but she is from California originally and so we do know a lot of the same people.”

Kruszewski comes to Hayward from Wisconsin where she coached two high school swimming teams.

Not only was she the head coach for the boy’s swimming team at Stoughton High School but she was also simultaneously the head coach for the girl’s swimming team at Oregon High School. Both schools are in Wisconsin, a place that she is very familiar with.

She was an Academic All-Big 10 Conference team member for three consecutive seasons from 2011 to 2013 during her time as a member of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Swimming Team.

Kruszewski earned a degree in Sociology during her time as a Badger while competing against top-level talent at a major conference at the Division I collegiate level.

Her first college dive wasn’t in Madison, it was at UC Irvine where she originally attended and made a splash as a member of the Swimming Team. Kruszewski was named a scholar athlete in her freshman season as an Anteater but the program was eliminated in 2009 forcing her to transfer to new waters.

The coaching and swimming experience will be a vital asset to a Pioneer squad that graduated just one senior. The Pioneers return 15 of the 19 team members from last season that finished the regular season 6-6 overall before placing third at the conference championships in La Mirada.

Senior standout Alyssa Tenney from Chino Hills is one of the lone departures from the CSUEB squad.

“We are looking at 15 returners next season, as well as potentially 15 new recruits,” Loorz said. “So I am very excited to have a larger team this next year, and Coach Kruszewski will be an integral part of making sure that every athlete gets the coaching that they need to be their very best.”

Loorz has led the Pioneers to top three finishes in the conference championships the past three seasons and is hopeful that Kruszweski can help the team succeed.

“She has a great technical understanding, as well as knowledge of what it takes to succeed at the highest levels of this sport,” Loorz said. “She is demanding, and yet already has a great rapport with the team.”