The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
Staff Directory
- Title:
- Associate Head Coach, Women's Swimming and Diving
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Texas Women's Swimming head coach Carol Capitani welcomed Mitch Dalton as assistant coach in May 2020.
Since arriving on the Forty Acres, Dalton has helped guide the Longhorns to the program's best four-year stretch in almost three decades.
In 2023-24 the Longhorns earned a third-straight runner-up finish at the NCAA Championships, scoring 441 points at the meet, the most for the program since 1992. Emma Sticklen won a second consecutive title in the 200 fly, while the Longhorns established program records in the 100 fly (Sticklen), 200 free relay and 400 medley relay at the national meet. The Longhorns won the Big 12 Conference title for the 12th consecutive year, winning all 18 swimming events at the meet, while Kelly Pash was named the Big 12 Swimmer of the Year and Campbell Stoll was selected the Big 12 Newcomer of the Year.
The 2022-23 campaign was a historic one for Texas, placing second at the 2023 National Championships for the second-straight year, with two swimmers winning individual championships. It marked the second consecutive runner-up finish for Texas, the first back-to-back top-two finishes for the Longhorns since 1992-93, and third-straight top-three result – the best three-year run for UT since 1993-95. Lydia Jacoby (100 breast) and Emma Sticklen (200 fly) captured national titles and Texas was one of two programs to place in the top-eight of all five relay races. The Horns featured two individual event national champions for the first time since 2001 and had 11 student-athletes earn All-American accolades. At the conference level, Texas captured an 11th consecutive conference crown with Sticklen earning Big 12 Swimmer of the Year honors and Jacoby tabbed the conference newcomer of the year.
Texas finished second at the 2022 NCAA Championships, the Longhorns' best finish since 1994 and the second-straight year in which UT placed in the top three. The Longhorns also won it's 10th consecutive Big 12 Conference crown, sweeping all 21 events. Kelly Pash was named the Big 12 Swimmer of the Year, while Erica Sullivan earned Newcomer of the Year honors.
In 2021, UT took third at the NCAA Championships, Texas' first top-three finish at the NCAA Championship since a third-place showing in 2001. At the Big 12 Championships, Texas won 17 of 18 swimming events on the way to a ninth-straight conference crown. Evie Pfeifer was tabbed the Big 12 Conference Swimmer of the Year and Kelly Pash earned Newcomer of the Year accolades.
Prior to joining the Longhorns, Dalton enjoyed an almost five-year stint with USA Swimming, where he served as the National Junior Team Director. As National Junior Team Director, his primary role has been to identify, support, and cultivate future Olympians. He built strong relationships and worked in conjunction with the USA Swimming High Performance staff and United States Olympic Committee practitioners.
Before his stop at USA Swimming, Dalton spent five seasons at Princeton University as the assistant coach for the men's program, helping to guide the Tigers to four Ivy League Team titles and three NCAA appearances. While with the Tigers, Dalton served as the recruiting coordinator, directly correlating to three nationally-ranked classes as his 2011 class was No. 13, his 2012 class was No. 5, and his 2014 class was No. 6. He also worked with distance/mid/stroke swimmers, lead the sprint group, assisted with the overall layout of the season and weekly plan.
Dalton also gained collegiate swimming coaching experience with two years at George Washington University, where he was the assistant for both the men's and women's programs. While at George Washington, he was in charge of all recruiting responsibilities, alumni relations, fundraising, supported strength and conditioning department in weightlifting and dry land regimes, training of the stroke/sprint groups.
He was also instrumental in the strength and conditioning program, work that translated to 16 new program and three new conference records. David Zenk won three conference titles during Dalton’s time with Colonials, setting five school records and recording an NCAA qualifying time in the 200 back.
Dalton gained additional international administrative experience on the coaching staff of Estonia for the 2011 World University Games. At the club level, he swam for the Capitol Sea Devils in USA Swimming's Potomac Valley LSC and also coached at Machine Aquatics.
A four-year letterwinner at James Madison, he began his coaching career with his alma mater. In one season, he helped the Dukes to a seven-win improvement as a team and nine new individual school records.
Dalton was a four-event finalist (100/200 breast and 200/400 IM) at the Colonial Athletic Association championships. As a senior captain, he was awarded the Steven H. Miller Award for Leadership and Dedication to the team. Dalton led the Dukes to a third-place finish at the C.A.A. championships, the highest team finish for a non-scholarship program.
A native of Sydney, Australia, Dalton has been trained by some of the top coaches in his home nation, including Australian Olympic head coach Gregg Hodge, fellow Olympic coach John Carew and Olympian Georgina Parkes.
