Teuscher to Lead Yale Women

Courtesy of Yale Sports Publicity

NEW HAVEN, Conn. –- Tim Wise, who spent the past 12 years as an assistant coach at Yale, and Cristina Teuscher, an Olympic medalist and multiple NCAA champion at Columbia, have been hired to lead the Yale swimming and diving program. Wise has been named the Robert J.H. Kiphuth Head Coach of Men’s Swimming and Diving, while Teuscher will serve as the Robert J.H. Kiphuth Head Coach of Women’s Swimming and Diving.

Wise and Teuscher will co-direct the program, sharing the overall responsibilities and ensuring that every swimmer receives guidance from the entire staff.

“The leadership team of Cristina Teuscher and Tim Wise as the new head coaches of Yale Swimming is very exciting news for our entire community,” said Director of Athletics Tom Beckett. “Both Cristina and Tim are highly regarded in the world of swimming. Cristina is a world class swimmer and Olympic gold medalist.  As an Ivy League graduate and winner of the Honda-Broderick Cup she exemplifies the very best of academic and athletic excellence. Tim as a coach is a rising star in the world of collegiate swimming.  We were thrilled with his contributions to the Yale program as an assistant and now look forward to his continued outstanding work as a head coach.” Wise and Teuscher replace Frank Keefe, the Robert J.H. Kiphuth Director of Swimming at Yale who retired after 32 years.

During his tenure as an assistant to Keefe, Wise helped Yale swimmers set 22 university records, win 16 individual and two relay Ivy League Championship titles. In addition, two of his swimmers competed at the 2008 United States Olympic Trials. Since 2004, Wise has been responsible for the sprinters, who accounted for more than 50 percent of Yale’s points at the Ivy League Championships during that span.

Alex Righi became one of the most decorated swimmers in Yale history under Wise’s guidance. Righi, an 11-time All-American, won the Moriarty Trophy as the Swimmer of the Meet at the Ivy League Championships three times and finished second in both the 50 and 100 freestyles at the NCAA Championships as a junior and tied the American record in the 50 freestyle as a senior.

While at Yale, Wise also serves as the head coach of the Omni Swim Club, a Yale-based USA Swimming club. He was named the 2008 Connecticut Swimming Senior Coach of the Year.

Prior to Yale, Wise served as the head coach at Southern Connecticut State University where he guided the Owls to a 21-9 dual-meet record in the New England Intercollegiate Swimming and Diving Conference. He also has experience as an assistant coach at Texas A&M and Arizona State.

Wise is a 1993 Southern Connecticut State graduate.

“I am humbled and honored to have been selected to lead the men and women of Yale,” Wise said. “This is a dream job, and the opportunity of a lifetime.  I am excited to begin my new role and look forward to working with the most decorated female swimmer in the history of the Ivy League in Christina Teuscher.  I am confident that, together, we will allow our student-athletes the opportunity to chase Ivy League titles and dream the Olympic dream.”

Teuscher comes to Yale from Crimson Aquatics, a private USS Swimming Club in Boston that focuses on developing national caliber athletes. She also was a consultant and coach at the Badger Swim Club in Larchmont, N.Y., and served on the 2008 USA Olympic swim coaches six-member selection committee.

At Columbia, Teuscher was a four-time NCAA champion. She won 12 Ivy League titles and set 17 school records. In her four collegiate seasons, she never lost an individual race, including all she entered in the NCAA championships. As a senior, she received the Honda Award as the nation’s top collegiate swimmer and was later honored with the Honda-Broderick Cup as the best collegiate women’s athlete in the United States. Teuscher won a gold medal as a member of the record-setting 800 freestyle relay at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta. Four years later, she medaled again at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, earning a bronze in the 200 individual medley, while serving as captain of the U.S. team.

Following her graduation from Columbia in 2000, she worked at the Robin Hood Foundation in its 9/11 Relief Effort and had a two-year stint as an analyst with Ziff Brothers Investments.

“Yale Swimming has a tremendously rich history, which is very humbling and exciting to be a part of,” Teuscher said. “I'm looking forward to working with Tim and our swimmers to build on that story with a new era for Yale Swimming.”