Florida Atlantic University

Former Florida Atlantic University swimmer Lara Preacco, Ph.D., joined the men's and women's coaching staff in May of 2012 as an assistant, and two years later, was elevated to Head Coach. Preacco is approaching her seventh season as the head coach, a position she has held since 2014. The men’s and women’s team are coming off huge milestones achieved in the past few seasons. On the women’s side, the team finished in third place at the 2020 Conference USA Championships. This feat marked the best finish for the Owls in a C-USA Championship, as well as best placing at a conference championship since 2007-08 when the Owls were a part of the Sun Belt Conference. Preacco helped the Owls achieve three different All-Conference performers after podium finishes at the championships. Additionally, Abby Marshall and Fatimah Westbrook earned C-USA Swimmer of the Week honors and Catalano was named C- Diver of the Week three times during the season. On the men’s side, the team earned a third-place finish at the 2020 Coastal Collegiate Sports Association Swimming & Diving Championships. The team earned 14 medals, the most the Owls have earned at a CCSA Championship, which included one gold, five silver and seven bronze medals. Preacco guided Rateb Hussein to break two school records (100 fly and 200 fly) and the 400 medley relay team (Kyle Douglas, Quinn LaCoursiere, Hussein and Connor Smoak) also broke a school record in the event at the CCSA Championships. Three different Owls on the men’s side received CCSA Weekly honors, which included Hussein (four-time selection), Michael Cannatelli (two-time selection) and Logan Downey (four-time selection). Under Preacco's leadership, the men's team was the runner up at the 2019 CCSA Championships. This feat marked the best finish in a conference championship for the men's team in over 20 years. Preacco’s student-athletes are well-rounded in the pool, classroom and community. Both teams are coming off the Spring 2020 semester being named to the CSCAA Scholar All-American Team. The women’s team received their 13th consecutive honor, while the men earned the award for the first time in three years. Marshall was named to the six-person C-USA All-Academic Team, becoming Preacco’s fifth All-Academic Team member, joining Alexis DeLisle (2017), Agnes Bucz (2016), Rachel Crino (2016) and Kiley Kuether (2016). The men have back-to-back recipients of the CCSA Scholar Athlete of the Year award with Clay Riemenschneider (2019-20) and Connor Hodges (2018-19) receiving the honor. Additionally, Preacco has had seven different student-athletes receive Honorable Mention to the CSCAA Scholar All-American Team. Preacco swam for the Owls from 1994 to 1998 when the University was in the early stages of Division I status. She was also an assistant coach for the team from 1998-2001, while earning her master's degree. She represented both FAU and her home country of Switzerland at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, and was inducted into the FAU Athletics Hall of Fame in 2010. Preacco is the second member of an FAU coaching staff, along with former swimming assistant coach Oliver Agh, to be both an FAU Athletics Hall-of-Famer and a former Olympic competitor. Prior to coming to FAU, Preacco set five Swiss national records and captured 38 gold medals while competing at the Swiss National Championships from 1983 to 1997. At FAU, she was team MVP in 1995-96 and team captain the following season. Besides her impressive résumé in the pool, Preacco also earned Honorable Mention in the All-American Scholar Excellence rankings, while placing on the FAU Dean's List four times and President's List three times. She earned both her bachelor's and master's degrees from the school, and obtained her doctorate in counseling psychology from Western Michigan University. Preacco’s Head Coaching Highlights - Twenty-one Conference Champions - Two NCAA Championships participants - Seven CSCAA Scholar All-American Honorable Mention recipients - Women’s team has earned 12 consecutive CSCAA Scholar All-American Team distinction and the men’s team has received the award five times - Two CCSA Scholar Athlete of the Year titles - Thirteen CCSA Swimmer of the Week and 22 CCSA Diver of the Week award winners - Two C-USA Newcomer of the Year awards - Five C-USA All-Academic Team recipients - Five C-USA Swimmer of the Week and seven C-USA Diver of the Week awards - Twenty-four school record holders and 200 freshman record holders - Men’s team finished as the runner-up at the 2019 CCSA Championships, which was the highest finish at a conference championships since 2000 - Women’s team finished third at the 2020 C-USA Championships, which was the highest finish at a conference championships since 2008

Alik Sarkisian was named head diving coach for Florida Atlantic University ahead of the 2022-23 season, arriving to FAU following a three-year stint as head diving coach at UNLV. Sarkisian also previously served 13 seasons as the head diving coach for Northwestern from 2006-19. In 2019, he coached his divers to a silver and bronze medal in the Big Ten 3-meter and platform dives as well as an NCAA 1-meter and 10-meter dive finalist. He was named both Big Ten Coach of the Year and the CSCAA National Coach of the Year in 2018. During this period, he also served as the coach for four Team USA Grand Prix teams, the coach for Team USA in the World University Games in 2013 and 2018, and coached Team USA in the 2015 World Series. Prior to his time at Northwestern, Sarkisian was the director and head coach for the USA Diving Regional Training Center from 2001-06, where he sent athletes to the USA Diving Grand Prix, Pan-AM Games, and USA/Canada Challenge. From 1998-2001, Sarkisian served as the Head Diving Coach for the Trojan Dive Club as well as assistant coach for USC. While there, he sent athletes to the USA Diving Olympic trials and served as a preparation consultant for the United States Olympic team. In 1996, Sarkisian had the honor of serving as the head coach of the Armenian national team at the 1996 Summer Olympics, held in Atlanta. Sarkisian also coached the Armenian national team from 1991-93. Sarkisian graduated in 1980 from the USSR State University of Physical Education in Yerevan, Armenia. He then coached for the USSR national team from 1980-1992.

Ryan Bubb joined the Florida Atlantic University swimming & diving team in the summer of 2021. Bubb comes to FAU after serving as the founding head coach of the Midland University’s men’s and women’s swimming & diving programs. As the head coach from 2016-21, Bubb had three teams compete at the NAIA National Swimming & Diving Championships. The men’s and women’s team competed at the NAIA Championships in 2018-19 and the men’s team brought home back-to-back Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference (KCAC) Championships in 2019-20 and 2020-21. During the 2019-20 and 2020-21 seasons at Midland, the NAIA Championships have been cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. To make up for the lost competition this past year, the team competed at the Collegiate Swimming Championships in Fort Pierce, Florida. The men’s team placed third and the women’s team took home fourth. Bubb led the men’s team to a 10th place showing at the 2019 NAIA National Championships in the team’s second year of existence. In just two seasons, he saw 30 individual qualifiers reach the national tournament on the men’s and women’s side. Bubb also served as the Conference Chair of the swimming division of the KCAC, which started in 2019. Prior to Midland, Bubb spent two seasons as the head coach at Lincoln Southwest High School (2015-17). At Lincoln Southwest, Bubb’s women’s team earned back-to-back Nebraska State Championships while setting 10 state swimming records (seven individual and three relay). The Silver Hawks were ranked in the top 10 nationally in both of Bubb’s seasons as the head coach. During his year at the school, Bubb was the head age group coach at Heartland Aquatics. Bubb was a four-year varsity letterman and a part of a four-time Big Ten Championships-winning team at Ohio State University from 2010-14. He left Ohio State with a myriad of top 10 times across numerous events in the program’s all-time record book. As the team captain in 2014, Bubb was also a two-time Ohio State Scholar Athlete and two-time Big Ten All-Academic Team choice. In 2012, Bubb participated at the Olympic Trial Qualifiers in the 200-meter butterfly. He also competed at the 2016 Olympic Trials in the 50-meter freestyle. Bubb was a five-time Nebraska State Champion and broke two state records at Lincoln East High School. He was a member of the U18 USA National Team in 2010 that competed in Barcelona, Spain, and finished in third in the 50-meter freestyle at the United States Junior National Championships in 2009. Bubb graduated from Ohio State with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree with a concentration in art and technology in 2015.

Alexa joined the staff as a volunteer video manager in 2022.