Swimcloud
Jess Book

Jess Book

Head Coach

Jess Book enters the 2022-23 season having coached both the men's and women's Kenyon swimming programs together since the 2012-13 campaign. During the women's 2022 NCAA Championship run, Book led Kenyon to its 24th NCAA crown, snapping Emory University's ten-year stronghold of the national title. After the conclusion of the championship meet, Book was named CSCAA's 2022 NCAA Division III co-Women's Swimming and Diving Coach of the Year, while Crile Hart earned NCAA Division III Women's Swimmer of the Year honors. In his first season of coaching both Kenyon teams, Book was voted both CSCAA's 2013 NCAA Division III Men’s Coach of the Year and the 2013 NCAA Division III Women’s Coach of the Year. In doing so, he became the first Division III coach to earn both awards in the same season since the NCAA combined the men’s and women’s championship meets. What Book accomplished in his initial season as the men's coach was nothing short of spectacular. During the 2013 NCAA Championship run, he steered his squad from what was perceived to be an underdog role to wresting the title away from Denison University, the two-time defending champion. The NCAA team title was a first for Book, as a head coach, and was the record-setting 32nd for the Kenyon program. In 2014 and 2015, the Kenyon men won national championships again, making it three in a row and bringing the program's total to 34, an NCAA record spanning all sports and all divisions. On the women’s side, Book was hired as Kenyon's head coach beginning with the 2010-11 season. At the national level, he directed the Kenyon women to back-to-back fourth-place finishes in his first two seasons. In 2013, however, the Kenyon women took the NCAA by storm, setting over a dozen College records and claiming the runner-up spot in the team standings. In 2014, Kenyon claimed its second straight runner-up finish at the NCAA Championships in Indianapolis. Those results were the first two of five runner-up finishes over the course of a seven-year span. With the 2020 and 2021 NCAA Championships lost to the pandemic, the Kenyon women returned to the national stage in 2021 and climbed to the top of the podium, winning the program's NCAA-record 24th national championship and ending Emory University's ten-year title run. Book was named the CSCAA co-Coach of the Year and Crile Hart was voted the CSCAA Swimmer of the Year. Book coached Hart to a pair of Swimmer of the Year awards. In his time with the women's program he's also had nine swimmers who combined for 15 CoSIDA Academic All-America awards, and 12 swimmers who capped off their collegiate careers with NCAA Postgraduate Scholarships. During his own swimming days, Book, a 2001 Kenyon graduate, was a four-year member of championship-winning swim teams and was an All-America award-winner in the 1999-00 season. He captained the 2000-01 Kenyon men's squad and closed out his senior season with an NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship and his third-straight spot on the CSCAA’s All-Academic Team. After graduation, Book returned to campus and served as Jim Steen's assistant coach four times in a six-year span. As an assistant, he helped guide the women's program to three national titles and the men's team to four. He also played a key role in the development of 20 NCAA individual-event champions and seven NCAA Division III record-setters. Following up on that time with the Kenyon, Book moved on to gain experience at the NCAA Division I level working as the assistant men's coach at The Ohio State University. During that stretch, the Buckeyes improved from fifth place to first place at Big Ten Championship meets and moved from twenty-first place to ninth place at NCAA Championship meets. Book, who earned bachelor’s degrees in English and biology, acquired his master’s degree in sports and exercise studies while at Ohio State.
DK

Dani Korman

Associate Head Coach

Ron Kontura

Ron Kontura

Diving Coach

With a wealth of experience from nearly every level of competition, Ron Kontura was hired as Kenyon's men's and women's head diving coach in the summer of 2017. He came to Gambier by way of Columbus, Ohio, where he spent half a year as coach of The Ohio State University diving club. During Kenyon's fifth-place team finish at the 2022 Men's NCAA Championship, Kontura coached Israel Zavaleta to a title sweep of the one-meter and three-meter diving boards. Before the NCAA Championship, Zavaleta won both events at the NCAC Championship and the Regional Diving Championship. Zavaleta earned both NCAA Diver of the Year and NCAC Diver of the Year honors while rewriting the Kenyon record book during the 2021-22 season. For his mentorship, Kontura was voted NCAA Division III Men's Diving Coach of the Year. In his first season at Kenyon, the 2017-18 campaign, Kontura coached Ryder Sammons to NCAC Diver of the Year honors. It was the first time since 1997 that a Kenyon men's diver was honored. Prior to his work at Kenyon, from 2006 through 2014, Kontura served as the diving coach at the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York, where he led all aspects of the program, including athlete development, recruitment and compliance. Prior to that, he was the diving coach at University of California-Berkeley for three seasons. Kontura earned his first head coaching position at Allegheny College in 1994-95. With the Gators, he coached four NCAA Division III All-Americans. He then moved on to the University of Michigan as a volunteer assistant for a year before taking over as a head coach at Illinois State University, where he remained for four seasons. While at at Illinois State, Kontura found time to also coach and direct a club team, the Redbird Diving Club, which developed four national Junior Olympic qualifiers. Between his time at Illinois State and California, Kontura worked as both the diving coach and director of business operations of Nadadores Diving in Mission Viejo, California. He coached the Nadadores to the 2003 West National title and produced individual Junior Olympics national champions, as well as high school All-Americans. Kontura's resume also includes a Patriot League Coach of the Year award. He coached at both the 2012 and 2016 Olympic Trials. Additionally, he served as Chairman of USA Masters Diving from 2012 to 2016 and served on the USA Diving Rules Committee from 2008 to 2014. Kontura earned his master's degree in business administration from Illinois State in 1999 and his bachelor's degree in business administration from Ohio University in 1991.
Kosuke Kojima

Kosuke Kojima

Assistant Coach

With more than five years coaching experience at the NCAA level, Kosuke Kojima joins the Kenyon College staff as the Senior Assistant Swimming Coach for both the Kenyon men’s and women’s programs. Kojima’s previous position was as an Assistant Coach at Tulane University, an NCAA Division I institution in New Orleans, Louisiana. During his four seasons there, Tulane had a couple of NCAA qualifiers, US Nationals finalists, and the team moved up to a third-place finish at the 2022 American Athletic Conference Championship. Prior to Tulane, Kojima served for one year as a Volunteer Assistant Coach for the University of Michigan men's and women's swimming and diving program. At the 2018 Big Ten Championship, the Michigan men were the runner-up, while the women took the conference crown. The teams went on to place eighth and fourth, respectively, at the NCAA Championship. Prior to arriving at Michigan, Kojima spent eight years as the Head Coach and three-and-a-half years as the Assistant Coach of the Counsilman Center Swim Team in Bloomington, Indiana while earning his master's in exercise physiology and doctorate in human performance. It was there that he first connected with Kenyon, working at the College’s annual Total Performance Swim Camp. Before entering the coaching world, Kojima attended Chuo University in Tokyo, Japan and was a four-year member and team captain of the swim team. After a stellar competitive career that included winning the Japanese collegiate national championship title in the 200 IM, he returned to Chuo in April of 2001 and worked as a Volunteer Assistant Coach for three years.