The University of Maryland swimming and diving team announced the hire of two new assistant coaches, Jarod Schroeder and Demarae Christianson. They will join Cathy Sursi and Kevin Clements on the staff of second-year head coach Dave Durden.

Jarod Schroeder, a 1995 graduate of Northern Illinois University, has been an assistant coach with the Northwestern swimming and diving program since 2000. As a coach of the perennial top-25 program, he mentored Olympic Trials qualifiers, NCAA qualifiers, and U.S. National Finalists.

In addition, Schroeder has served as the head coach of the New Trier Swim Club in Winnetka, Ill. since 2002. While there, he developed Olympic Trials qualifiers, U.S. Open finalists, and U.S. National finalists.

After finishing a career at NIU in which he served as team captain and was a 2-time Illinois Collegiate Swimmer of the Year, Schroeder took on volunteer assistant coaching jobs at his alma mater and the University of Wisconsin.

Schroeder, elected to the NIU Athletics Hall of Fame in 2006, carried impressive stats during his swimming career. He was co-captain of the 1999 Pan-American Games team, where he was a double silver medalist. The year previous, he had participated in the 1998 Goodwill Games. While at NIU, he was three times named the Mid-America Conference Swimmer of the Year, earning seven individual conference titles and three conference records.

"I'm really excited to become a part of Maryland Swimming," says Schroeder. "We have a young staff with a lot of National Team experience. It will be fun to work with Dave to bring Maryland Swimming to national prominence."

A native of Morrison, Ill., Schroeder and his wife Liz were married in August, 2005.

Demarae Christianson is coming off a year as an assistant coach at Auburn University, where she helped lead the Tigers to their fourth NCAA title.

A 2004 graduate of Auburn, Christianson was a part of three of those championship teams as the Tigers won three straight from 2002-2004. A 15-time All-American, Christianson won gold in the 100 fly at the 2003 World University Games in Korea. For the 2005 World University Games in Turkey, she was named the team's captain. There, she won gold in the 4x100 medley relay and bronze in the 100 fly. In 2004, she placed third in the Olympic trials.

A native of Gillette, Wy., Christianson says that she is "excited to be at Maryland working with Coach Durden."