Head Coach Nathan Owens returns for his sixth season in 2009-10 and hopes to ride the momentum of 2008-09 season which culminated at the NCAA Championships with men’s and women’s finishes of 12th and 15th, respectively. It marked the fifth consecutive Top-20 finish for the women and the second consecutive Top-15 finish for the men. Last year, a total of 16 student-athletes returned from the national championships with a total of 42 All-American awards. In all, Owens has coached over 30 different athletes for a total of over 100 All-American honors. He has also mentored eight individual swimmers who have claimed Conference Championship awards.
A three-time conference Coach of the Year, most recently in 2008-09, Owens led MSU to a second-place finish last year on both the men’s and women's side while claiming a number of individual conference champions. Owens has seen 14 men’s school records fall under his tenure, while 18 school records have been broken on the women’s side.
During his tenure at Minnesota State, Owens has trained perhaps the greatest male swimmer in school history, Marty Wahle. Wahle finished his career as a Maverick with 16 All-American honors and qualified for the 2008 U.S. Olympic Trials. Owens also oversaw the career of Ben Dowswell who was a nine-time All-American for Minnesota State and qualified for the 2008 Canadian Olympic trials.
Prior to coming to Minnesota State, Owens served as an assistant coach for Texas Christian University and helped guide the Horned Frogs to back-to-back Conference USA titles. He also served as a head coach at St. Norbert College in De Pere, Wis., from 2000-2002. Prior to his appointment at St. Norbert, Owens served as the head coach for Wausau East High School in Wausau, Wis. In the summer of 2000, Owens coached the Wausau Tide Swimming Club and produced one Olympic trials qualifier.
Owens swam collegiately at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point from 1996-1999 where he earned his bachelor’s degree in Business Administration. He received his Master’s degree from Texas Christian University in Kinesiology in 2004. Owens resides in Mankato.
