{"id":535489,"date":"2023-08-18T10:44:23","date_gmt":"2023-08-18T17:44:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=535489"},"modified":"2023-08-18T10:44:23","modified_gmt":"2023-08-18T17:44:23","slug":"minnesota-hires-zach-mertens-as-assistant-coach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/minnesota-hires-zach-mertens-as-assistant-coach\/","title":{"rendered":"Minnesota Hires Zach Mertens as Assistant Coach"},"content":{"rendered":"

Minnesota Hires Zach Mertens as Assistant Coach<\/strong><\/p>\n

The University of Minnesota Friday announced the hiring of Zach Mertens<\/strong> as an assistant coach on the swimming and diving staff.<\/p>\n

Mertens has spent the last six seasons as an assistant coach at Division II Drury University, the last five as a full-time assistant.<\/p>\n

“We are excited and fortunate to have Zach join us! He has been an instrumental part of Drury’s success over the past several years,” Director of Swimming and Diving Kelly Kremer<\/strong> said in a university release<\/a>. “Zach is creative and tireless in his approach to recruiting, and he has proven to be a great educator and coach with the Panthers. We are looking forward to Zach’s positive impact with our student-athletes and with our entire Golden Gopher Swimming and Diving Program.”<\/p>\n

Drury has had recent success in Division II. It was the runner-up at NCAAs last year on the men\u2019s side, while the women\u2019s team finished fourth. The team was also the runner-up at NCAAs in 2021 but was forced to vacate that trophy due to errors in determining eligibility of athletes<\/a>.<\/p>\n