Head Coach Nathan Owens has been with the Mavericks since 2004. During his tenure, the Swimming & Diving team has produced the top performers in the program’s rich history. The team’s record books have been rewritten and new benchmarks for success have been set nearly every year. Owens has led the Mavericks to 17 postseason appearances through his first 21 years and led the team to top-25 finishes at the Division II National Championships 13 times so far. At Minnesota State, Owens has coached dozens of All-Americans and produced U.S. and Canadian Olympic trials qualifiers. One of Owens' great individual successes was coaching Cheyenne Rova, who became an Olympian representing Fiji at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.
During the 2024-25 season, Owens helped guide the Women's Swimming and Diving program through his 21st season! During this very successful campaign, Owens earned his 100th duel meet victory before going on to finish second out of nine women's teams at the NSIC Conference Championship. In Owens’ time, the Mavericks have captured 3 NSIC conference championships in 2018, 2021, and 2022.
In addition to his coaching duties, Owens also directs seasonal swim camps for youth and age-group swimmers. The Mavericks are supportive of the greater swimming community, and Owens ensures to give back in a multitude of ways.
Prior to coaching at Minnesota State, Owens served as an assistant coach for Texas Christian University (TCU) and helped guide the Horned Frogs to back-to-back Conference USA titles in 2002 & 2003. From 2000 – 2002, he served as a Head Coach at St. Norbert College in De Pere, Wis., where he helped establish the new program and in only their second year of existence, Owens guided the Green Knights to finish in the top half of their conference finishing 3rd out of 7 teams. 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 helped to produce one Olympic trials qualifier.
Owens attended and competed for 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 in Exercise Science from Texas Christian University in 2004. Owens resides in North Mankato, MN with his wife Lindsey, and their four children Eli, Vivian, Edda, and Annie.
Program description & training philosophy:
The team's training philosophy is straight forward, simple, and designed to produce results. In short, the mavericks “train to compete”. In practice, this translates to high quality training over volume training. Important aspects of the training program include an emphasis on strength and conditioning. Developing sport specific functional strength and explosiveness is critical to success. In addition, race specific and event specific training are often used in training. Many workouts are in small groups and include general conditioning, race specific training, stroke specific training, power-production-tolerance training, in addition to recovery workouts.
The Women's Swimming & Diving program has steadily improved in recent years and looks to continue on that trend. The coaches are searching for highly motivated and competitive athletes to continue to build a nationally competitive program. Optimistic about the future of the program, Coach Owens explains "Our program continues to have a bright future. The Women’s Swimming & Diving program is well funded and supported. Our coaching staff has the experience and the desire to help our program reach a new level of success. Our focus is to recruit highly motivated women that are hard working and love to compete. In addition, the Division II model here at Minnesota State allows student-athletes to find a positive balance between their respective sport, their education, and the other important aspects of life”. This philosophy also allows our student-athletes to maintain a balance between their course work, family, athletic, and social life. Academic success is paramount. The Women’s Swimming and Diving Programs has been recognized by achieving Academic All-American status on a regular basis.
Top five reasons to become a Maverick
• Cumulative Team GPA above 3.60
• A great campus in a great community
• Over 150 majors offered in a supportive academic environment
• A dynamic training program that builds team unity
• The BEST training trips in the country!
