LSU Gold

Steve Mellor Season 2023-24

LSU
Steve Mellor
Title
Associate Head Coach
Email
stevemellor@lsu.edu
Phone
(225) 578-3947
Hometown
Stockport Chesire, England
Alma Mater
NC State (2009)

Steve Mellor begins his second season as Associate Head Coach after serving the previous six seasons as an assistant coach. Mellor returned to the LSU staff in January 2015 and works as the sprint coach and with international recruiting.

For the 2020-21 season, Mellor helped coach the LSU swimming program’s first Olympic gold medalist in Brooks Curry. At the conclusion of the postseason, Mellor and Curry went to work and started to train for the U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials held in Omaha, Nebraska. Serving as Curry’s primary coach, Mellor was able to attend and watch Curry swim an impressive 48.51 prelim time. At the final, he improved his time and qualified for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics by placing fourth with a time of 48.19. In his quest for a medal, Curry swam in the prelims and finished with a time of 48.84 and an impressive split at 23.51 in the first 50 meters. Although Curry did not swim in the final, he still earned a gold medal for swimming with the prelim squad.

During the postseason, Mellor and company wrapped up the season with LSU’s highest NCAA finish since 2003. Curry became the first Tiger to earn All-American status in three different events at the NCAA Championships. Mitch Mason, who also competed at the NCAA’s and U.S. Olympics Swimming Trials finished out the postseason with the second-fastest 200-yard breaststroke in LSU history at the NCAA Championships.

In the regular season, Mellor’s swimmers had some impressive outings. Curry had seven victories, including breaking his own school record at the Art Adamson Invitational in the 50-yard free with a time of 19.28. Mason finished the year with a regular season win at the against Florida State in the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 54.56.

During the 2019-2020 season, Mellor helped lead Curry to a berth in the 2020 NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships. Thorughout the season, Curry set school records in the 50, 100, and 200-Yard Freestyles in route to earning the 100 Free gold medal at the 2020 SEC Championships and a silver in the 200 Free. Karl Luht also earned a birth to the 2020 NCAA Championships. Throughout the season, Luht moved up to No. 2 in LSU history in the 200 Back after swimming a 1:42.81 against Missouri. At the SEC Championships, Luht finished in fourth place in the 100 Back with a time of 46.02.

For the 2018-19 season, helped Luht qualify for the NCAA Championships in the 100-Yard Backstroke as well as the 100-Yard Freestyle. Luht finished in 21st place in the 100-Yard Back with a time of 45.70 and finished in 40th place in the 100-Yard Freestyle after touching the wall in 43.72.

In his first full season back with the Tigers, Mellor led Logan Rysemus, Alex Linge and Leah Troskot to individual appearances at NCAA Championships.

Rysemus completed a successful postseason as the junior set school records individually in the 100 back and 100 fly and became the first swimmer in school history to go sub-46 in both events. In his third season, Rysemus earned NCAA Honorable Mention All-America honors in the 100 fly and 100 back and also earned the silver medal in the 100 fly.

Troskot qualified individually for two events and also earned NCAA Honorable Mention All-America honors in the 100 free after finishing 13th . Troskot was a part of two school record relay teams and also set the second fastest 100 free, third best 50 free and fourth best 200 free times in school history.

To cap off his LSU career, Linge swam in the 100 free, 100 fly and 50 free at NCAA Championships. The Swedish native set the school record in the 100 free and reached the championship final in two events at SEC Championships.

Over the summer of 2015, Mellor worked with Troskot as well as former swimmers Marco Gonzalez and Amber Carter. Troskot earned bronze in the 50-meter fly and reached two other ‘A’ finals at Canadian Swimming Championships. Gonzalez became the Colombian national champion in the 50-meter free and Carter finished seventh in the 100-meter fly at US Winter Championships.

In his first stop at LSU, the Stockport Chesire, England native helped lead former Tiger Craig Hamilton distance swimmer to earn NCAA Honorable Mention All-American honors in the mile with a program record time of 14:45.94.

Hamilton also won a bronze medal in the mile and garnered a sixth place finish in the 500 free at SEC’s. Mellor also coached then freshman Frank Greeff to a bronze medal in the 200 fly and All-SEC Freshman honors.

In between his time at LSU, Mellor coached at Creative Aquatics and Nationwide Swim Clinics in England.

Mellor developed kids of all ages at Creative Aquatics in South West of England. It was recognized as the nation’s best swim school in 2013. He also ran Nationwide Swim with the assistance of three-time Olympic Finalist, James Goddard.

Prior to his first stint at LSU, Mellor spent two and half seasons as a graduate assistant coach at North Carolina State. Mellor served as head coach of NC State’s club team, the Wolfpack Aquatics, in 2010 and 2011 after serving as assistant coach in the summer of 2009.

Under Mellor’s two and a half year watch, nine women’s and three men’s school records were broken. He worked closely with 200-breaststroke record holder (2:15.81) Jessica Ward and 200-freestyle record holder (1:47.69) Marifrances Henley.

The highlight to Mellor’s brief coaching career was swimmer Mason McGee’s vast improvements. Shreveport, Louisiana native McGee achieved two top-eight performances in the 200-meter free and the 800m free at US Nationals in 2009.

Mellor’s illustrious career began on the international stage with his selections to the British Senior Teams in 2005 and 2007, as well the 2005 Mare Nostrum Grand Prix Tour. He competed in the European Championships is 2007.

Mellor set two NC State records in the 200 back and the 400 IM. He was elected team captain for three straight seasons from 2005-2008.

Mellor received All-ACC honors from 2007-2009 and an eight-point ACC scorer. He was a three-time NCAA qualifier and registered a top-18 finish in the 200-back in 2008.

Mellor was world ranked in the top-50 for the 200-meter backstroke in 2005 and 2008. He went on to be a finalist in the 2008 US Open.

Mellor is a native of Chester, England and first came over to the US in 2005. His parents are Nigel and Josie Mellor and he has an elder sister, Caroline. He is a huge fan of the Liverpool Football Club.