BATON ROUGE — Lars Jorgensen has been named swimming associate head coach at LSU, head coach Jeff Cavana announced Wednesday.
Jorgensen, a native of San Diego, Calif., had served as an assistant coach for the Tigers the past four seasons, guiding the men’s and women’s teams to five top-25 finishes and coaching 14 All-Americans. He has been an intricate part in the training of distance swimmers and recruiting.
“Lars deserves this promotion and recognition,” said LSU head coach Jeff Cavana. “He has been an invaluable part of this program since the day he arrived on campus. His commitment and dedication to LSU warranted this promotion. He certainly has the utmost respect of the athletes, staff and coaching peers.”
Jorgensen participated in the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, swimming the 1500-freestyle event for the United States. He would later attend the University of Tennessee where he earned All-America honors, before graduating in 1994. Two years later, he earned his masters degree in sports management and then went into coaching. He served as an assistant for his alma mater for one year and then became head coach at the Blount Aquatic Club in Maryville, Tenn.
Lars moved back to his hometown to serve as the head age-group coach of the Blue Fins Swim Team, a premier junior national swim club in Southern California. He joined the LSU staff in 1999, making an immediate impact coaching the men’s and women’s teams to top-25 finishes, lead by All-Americans Rodrigo Castro and Melissa Knox.
“I am grateful for the opportunity that Coach Cavana has given me and our goal is to be recognized as a national power on a consistent basis”, said Jorgensen. “We are looking forward to having a great season this year, and we will work hard on recruiting some blue chip athletes as we have a huge senior class graduating this year.”