Ethan Curl enters his second season at Penn State in 2025-26 after a decorated swimming career at Indiana University and a plethora of coaching experience at the Division I level.
In 2024-25, the Penn State men’s team collected five meet wins, while the women’s team captured four meet wins.
On the men’s side, junior Matthew Bittner set a school record in the 200 IM (1:43.78) and sophomore Alex Karahalis set a PSU record in the 200 Butterfly (1:43.47) and the Nittany Lions posted school records in the 200 Freestyle Relay (1:17.77) and 800 Freestyle Relay (6:22.37).
Junior Eduardo Cisternas captured a team-high nine individual event titles, while posting an NCAA B time in the 1650 Freestyle (15:15.08).
Sophomore Tylor Kim, junior Mariano Lazzerini and junior Cooper Morley each collected seven individual event wins. Kim earned NCAA B times in the 50 Freestyle (19.64), 100 Freestyle (43.24) and 200 Freestyle (1:35.07), while Lazzerini had NCAA B times in the 100 Breaststroke (52.49) and 200 Breaststroke (1:56.33). Morley posted NCAA B times in the 100 Butterfly (46.14), 100 Backstroke (45.61) and 200 Backstroke (1:41.70).
Karahalis secured six individual event titles and NCAA B times in the 200 Butterly (1:44.58), 200 IM (1:44.60) and 400 IM (3:46.68).
Bittner claimed NCAA B times in the 100 Backstroke (45.48), 100 Butterfly (45.76) and 200 IM (1:45.26), while placing seventh at the Big Ten Championships in the 100 Backstroke (45.68).
Penn State earned four event titles in the 200 Medley Relay, three in the 400 Freestyle Relay and one each in the 200 Freestyle Relay and 400 Medley Relay.
On the women’s side, fifth-year Margaret Markvardt set a school record in the 200 IM (1:57.03).
Markvardt collected nine individual event titles and posted NCAA B times in the 100 Butterfly (51.96) and 200 IM (1:57.03). She finished eighth at the Big Ten Championships in the 100 Butterfly (52.55).
Junior Catherine Meisner captured seven individual event titles and earned an NCAA B time in the 200 Freestyle (1:45.74).
Junior Morgan Moore tallied six individual event titles and posted NCAA B times in the 500 Freestyle (4:46.16) and 1650 Freestyle (16:27.26).
The Nittany Lions captured two event titles in the 400 Freestyle Relay and one in the 200 Medley Relay.
Multiple Nittany Lions competed in international competitions. Bittner, Karahalis, Kim and Moore all qualified for World Championship Trials in June. Lazzerini claimed a Chilean National Record in the 50 Breaststroke. Cisternas and Lazzerini both competed in the Pan American Games.
Curl joined the Penn State staff after spending the most recent season as an assistant swimming and diving coach and recruiting coordinator at Ohio University. In his time with the Bobcats he was responsible for implementing, fostering and maintaining positive team culture among other duties. He also assisted in designing workouts and season plans for all training groups while leading the recruiting of all athletes. Curl helped guide three individual conference champions, four first team All-MAC honorees and two second team All-MAC members. He also coached the 2024 MAC Freshman of the Year and helped Ohio secure its first NCAA qualifier in over a decade.
Prior to his time in Ohio, Curl served as an assistant coach at Indiana University Purdue University (IUPUI) from 2021-23. He led the middle-distance and distance freestyle groups as well as the group off 400 IM swimmers. In his final season at IUPUI, both the men's and women's squads were Horizon League runner ups and had six NIC Qualifiers including an event champion who secured a meet record. Curl also assisted in coaching 15 conference champions, six Horizon League records broken and 42 team records achieved.
Curl was the primary coach of Emmaleigh Zietlow, a five-time Horizon League individual conference champion, 2022 Horizon League Women's Freshman of the Year and 2023 Horizon League Co-Female Swimmer of the Meet. He was also the lead coach of Gabby Puryear-Lynch, a 2023 Horizon League Women's Freshman of the Year as well as Logan Kelly, a three-time Horizon League individual conference champion and NCAA qualifier as the first in program history.
The experienced coach spent one season as the volunteer assistant coach at the University of Kentucky. During his time at UK, he helped guide the women to their first program SEC Championship in the 2020-21 season.
Curl was a four-year student-athlete at Indiana, a fellow Big Ten institution, from 2014-18. He specialized in distance freestyle and was a member of two Bug Ten Conference Championship squads. In his final season, he helped his team to a third-place finish overall in the NCAA. In 2016, Curl qualified for the Olympic Trials and in 2017 qualified for World Championship Trials.
Curl earned his B.S. Kinesiology with focus in Sport Marketing & Management from Indiana in 2018 and earned his master's in business administration with concentrations in Finance & Global Supply Chain Management from Northern Kentucky in 2022.