Penn State Hires Samantha Pickens as Head Diving Coach

Photo Courtesy: Penn State Athletics

Penn State Hires Samantha Pickens as Head Diving Coach

Penn State on Thursday announced the hiring of Samantha Pickens as the school’s head diving coach.

She joins the staff of Hollie Bonewit-Cron after two seasons as the head diving coach at Liberty. Pickens was named the Atlantic Sun Women’s Diving Coach of the Year in 2024-25.

Pickens returns to her home state after a standout career at the University of Arizona and as a USA Diving national champion.

Big Ten Swimming News

Pickens was a standout at Franklin Regional High School in the greater Pittsburgh area. She graduated from Arizona as a five-time All-American in 2014, having won NCAA championships on 1-meter in 2013 and 2015 and a Pac-12 1-meter title in 2015. She earned the University of Arizona Ruby Award for athletic and academic achievement as a senior and was among 32 swimmers and divers named to the Pac-12 All-Century team in 2016.

As a diver, she won USA diving titles on 1-meter in 2013 and 2015 and 3-meter synchro gold in 2013. She competed at four U.S. Olympic trials from 2016-24, earning 3-meter synchro bronze in the last two. Her competitive experience includes a number of international meets, including the 2013 and 2015 World Championships, finishing seventh on 3-meter synchro in the former. She also competed at the World University Games twice.

In 2021, Pickens teamed with Sarah Bacon to help the U.S. capture its Olympic quota spot for the Tokyo Olympics.

During her career, Pickens was a USA Diving athlete representative from 2011-13. She was the head coach of Team Puerto Rico in 2017 for two World Series events. She returned to her alma mater in 2017-18 as its interim diving head coach. From 2018-24, she was an assistant diving coach for the city of Midland, Texas, mentoring multiple USA Diving event qualifiers.

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