Rob Herb enters his twenty first season on the helm of the boys’s and ladies’s swimming and diving applications in 2024-25. Herb, the three-time Patriot League Girls’s Coach of the 12 months, owns a mixed twin meet document of 165-159. He has coached 15 people and three relay groups to Patriot League titles, together with Courtney Patterson, who grew to become Lehigh’s first feminine particular person league champion in 11 years in 2014, Kaitlyn Ruffing, who captured particular person league titles in every of her first two seasons of 2014 and 2015, Meghan Thompson, who capped her profession with titles in her ultimate two seasons, Megan Fennell, who grew to become this system’s first feminine diving champion in 2018, Ann Foley, who captured a gold medal within the 100-yard free in 2022 and Sarah Hardy 23, ’24G, who grew to become the primary swimmer below Herb to win two gold medals on the Patriot League Championships. Justin White grew to become the boys’s first champion in almost a decade when he claimed the 100 free crown in 2017.
Herb additionally leads his groups to excellence within the classroom as his groups have positioned 291 student-athletes on the Patriot League Swimming and Diving Educational Honor Roll in his 14 seasons, together with Patriot League Champion Dan Johnson who was named the league’s Scholar-Athlete of the 12 months for Males’s Swimming and Diving in 2008 and 2009. Herb’s Lehigh groups are constantly lauded by the CSCAA for his or her educational prowess. Ruffing (2015), Thompson (2018) and Rachel Rider (2018) have all achieved CSCAA Scholar All-America honors throughout Herb’s tenure.
The 2015-16 season marked a major milestone for the Mountain Hawks swim program as 4 swimmers – Kaitlyn Ruffing, Jacob Moyar, Justin White and Jamal Willis – all certified for the U.S. Olympic Trials, marking the primary time since 1968 and 1956 that Lehigh certified swimmers for the premier occasion. As a workforce, Herb helped lead the Mountain Hawk girls to a 7-2 total document, whereas the boys completed 5-5. Every workforce tallied a 3-2 mark in Patriot League competitors. On the Patriot League Championships, the 2 groups mixed to set 14 new college information and hit 4 NCAA B-cut instances. Eight Lehigh swimmers have been named All-Patriot League, whereas Ruffing earned Educational All-League honors.
Constructing on the earlier 12 months’s success, the Mountain Hawks continued to enhance in 2014-15. Lehigh swept Lafayette for the seventh consecutive 12 months, with these wins coming at a historic neutral-site assembly at Lehman Faculty in New York. Each the women and men completed with six twin meet wins and profitable twin meet information. Lehigh’s girls challenged for a prime three spot earlier than ending fourth on the Patriot League Championships, whereas the boys completed fifth. Kaitlyn Ruffing gained gold within the 50 yard freestyle for her second particular person title. The Mountain Hawks set 11 new college information on the Patriot League Championships, together with all 5 girls’s relays. Lehigh positioned ten student-athletes on All-Patriot League groups.
Herb led the Mountain Hawks to a profitable twin meet season in 2013-14. The Lehigh girls completed 7-2 whereas the boys went 6-4. Each Lehigh groups completed fifth on the Patriot League Championships with 20 new college information established over the 4 day meet. Sophomore Courtney Patterson grew to become Lehigh’s first particular person girls’s league champion since 2003 together with her win within the 400 yard particular person medley and Kaitlyn Ruffing later gained the 100 yard freestyle to present Lehigh two gold medals at a league championship meet for the primary time for the reason that Mountain Hawks gained three golds in 2005. Seven Mountain Hawks have been named to All-Patriot League groups.
The 2012-13 season noticed Lehigh’s males end fourth on the Patriot League Championships, whereas the ladies completed fifth. The spotlight of the twin meet season was Lehigh’s fifth straight sweep of arch rival Lafayette. A complete of 5 Mountain Hawks earned All-Patriot League honors, with freshmen Carolyn Koch (first workforce) and Courtney Patterson pacing the ladies, and Chris Hoke (first workforce), Demetri Karedis and Danny Bennett main the boys. Lehigh’s 200 yard free relay workforce consisting of Frank Cuzzola, Matt Chrzanowski, Karedis and Hoke, introduced residence the Mountain Hawks’ first Patriot League gold in 5 years.
In 2011-12, Lehigh’s males gained their first seven meets to complete at 7-4, whereas the ladies completed at 4-7. The Mountain Hawks swept rival Lafayette within the pool for the fourth consecutive season. Herb guided the Mountain Hawk males to a different fourth place end on the Patriot League Championships, whereas the ladies completed fifth. Lehigh had a powerful seven All-Patriot League picks, together with freshman Alissa Leung, who grew to become the primary Lehigh feminine swimmer since 2007 to earn first-team All-League honors.
In Herb’s eighth season he guided each the boys’s and ladies’s applications to profitable campaigns. The Mountain Hawk males have been 8-2 in twin meets and positioned fourth on the Patriot League Championships, whereas the ladies went 4-4. Lehigh swept Lafayette within the annual twin meet for the third straight 12 months. Andrew DiPietro led the best way for the Mountain Hawks incomes All-Patriot League laurels for his efficiency on the league championships, along with incomes Educational All-Patriot League honors.
The 2009-10 season noticed Lehigh’s males’s workforce submit a outstanding 9-1 document, whereas the ladies completed at 5-4. For the second straight 12 months and the third time in six seasons, the Mountain Hawks swept arch rival Lafayette. On the Patriot League Championships, Herb led each groups to fourth place finishes, whereas 11 new college information have been established.
In 2009, Herb guided each Mountain Hawk squads to 6-5 twin seasons that was highlighted by a sweep of arch rival Lafayette, Lehigh’s second sweep of the Leopards in 5 meets below Herb. On the Patriot League Championships, an unimaginable 13 college information fell, as Lehigh’s males swam to a fourth place workforce end, whereas the ladies completed sixth.
In his first season, Herb guided each Lehigh groups to top-five finishes on the Patriot League Championships and noticed his swimmers seize three Patriot League titles. In 2006, certainly one of Herb’s prime males’s swimmers, Grant Flothmeier, captured a person league title and was named to the ESPN the Journal at-large Educational All-District II second workforce.
Herb is not any stranger to Lehigh’s Jacobs Pool. He has served as a part of the Mountain Hawks workers for over a decade, initially as a member of the swimming workers below Chris Marshall, however extra lately in a part-time administrative function as Aquatics Director. His main skilled dedication has been Director and Head Coach of the very profitable Atlantis Membership Swimming program, a very long time lessee of Lehigh pool area. Herb has labored with Atlantis since 1994, when he created the membership. He’s four-time honoree of the American Swim Coaches Affiliation, capturing their Coach of Excellence honor in 2001, 2002, 2003, and 2004.
“Rob’s fame as a technical swimming coach and advocate for swimming is nationwide in scope,” stated Lehigh Athletics Director Joe Sterrett. “Extra importantly, nonetheless, Rob maintains a set of academic and private values which can be extraordinarily nicely aligned with the college and
with our division. Rob’s demeanor, organizational expertise, artistic and strategic pondering skills, and concern for younger individuals have earned him a robust and optimistic fame that’s based upon respect and belief.”
For 5 years starting in 2000, Herb served as a member of the U.S. Nationwide Swimming Staff advisory workers and regionally on the Center Atlantic Swimming board of assessment. He was head coach of the 2002 U.S. Nationwide Choose Coaching Camp, primarily based in Colorado Springs, Colo., the place he labored straight with most of the prime American swimmers and their coaches.
Herb graduated from Muhlenberg Faculty in Allentown, Pa., in 1990 with a bachelor’s in chemistry. He then earned his grasp’s in schooling from Lehigh in 1994. He resides in Bethlehem together with his spouse, Alexandra and daughter, Gisella.
