Kristian Ramkvist of Virginia Beach, Virginia, was named the Director of Men's and Women's Swimming at Virginia Wesleyan University in late May 2022 and is in his 3rd season at the helm. He becomes the second head coach of the program that competed in its first season in 2017-18.
In the 2023-24 season, the Swimming teams continued to build on their past successes as the men’s team finished 7th in the ODAC championship on the way to breaking nine school records. Speaking of records, Sophomore Cael Long broke five individual school records and was a part of four more along with teammates Declan Keener, Logan Schohn, Andrew McMullen, and Elias Paulino. The Women’s team placed 6th at the ODAC championship breaking 10 school records of their own as Lauren Hendricks who finished fourth in the 100 freestyle finals. Hendricks broke three individual school records and was a part of three more with teammates Sarah Czapp, Erin Beaudry, Audrey Roberts, and Suzanna Fernandez. Fernandez also broke school records in the 100 backstroke and 200 backstroke.
In the 2022-23 season, the women's swim team finished sixth at ODAC and broke eight team records, and the men's swimming team came in eighth and broke five team records.
Kristian comes to Virginia Wesleyan after serving as an aquatics trainer for the Navy Special Forces working primarily with the East Coast Navy Seal Assessment Team. While working with the Navy Special Operators, Kristian helped develop a training program for the East Coast Navy Seal Assessment Team to ensure a high success rate which involved working with the soldiers five days a week to ensure peak efficiency and comfort in the water. In addition to working with the Navy, Ramkvist was the head senior coach at the Coastal Virginia Aquatics Club.
Kristian was the head coach of the East Coast Aquatic Team from August 2017 to March 2022 where he was responsible for developing and maintaining an exciting, vibrant and sustainable program at all levels, developmental swimmers through elite swimmers. He also managed the practice schedules, developed technique training programs and was responsible for the hiring and training of new coaches and staff.
Kristian held a role as an assistant coach at his alma mater Old Dominion in 2015. He has coached for a number of teams in Sweden and Denmark including spending a year as the assistant head coach of the SS Iden club team in Furulund, Sweden (2014), where he helped the squad to its highest placing in the junior and senior nationals and also the first time one of the teams swimmers made the Swedish Senior National Team. He was a volunteer assistant coach for the Hvidovre Svømme Klub in Denmark in 2010-2011.
Kristian graduated from Old Dominion University in 2010 with a degree in Business Management. While attending ODU,
Kristian was a four-year varsity letterman in the swim team. He earned All-Colonial Athletic Association honors in the 200 IM placing third at the CAA Championships with a time of 1:51.29, which at one time was the second best time in school history. Kristian still sits in the top-10 in the ODU record books in the men's 200M breaststroke. Kristian met his wife Amanda, also a former Old Dominion swimmer, and had the opportunity to swim with his brother Mikael at Old Dominion as well.
The Marlins, who enter their sixth season of competition in 2022-23, compete in the Natatorium of the Jane P. Batten Student Center.
