Jack Fabian, Ph.D., begins his fifth season as head coach of the Keene State College swimming and diving program. Under the direction of Fabian and his hard-working staff, the Owls had enough highlights to fill the pool at Spaulding Gym.
The women's teams won four LEC titles, claimed the 2008 and 2009 NEISDA championships, and set 24 school records. Fabian has qualified athletes for the NCAA championship the past two years, including last season, when the Owls had their first competitor score at the national meet.
A young men's squad claimed its first-ever New England championship, placed a strong third at the ECAC Division III meet, and established 25 new records.
Despite KSC's numerous accomplishments in the pool, Fabian feels the program has just scratched the surface of its potential.
Outside of college swimming, he has gained a great deal of experience working with elite nationally ranked swimmers as part of his involvement with the Greenwood Memorial Swim Club and USA swimming. The swimmers in Fabian's training group of Greenwood Memorial swim club have earned numerous Top-16 national times and have qualified and competed in USA Swimming's Junior and Senior National competitions.
For the past three years, Fabian, has been the personal coach of an open water swimmer on the USA National team and has been a member of the USA Swimming National team Coaching staff. Fabian's national team athlete qualified and competed in the 10K and 25K open water events in the 2009 World Championships in Rome, Italy. In 2009, his travels as an open water coach have brought him as far as Dubai in the United Arab Emirates as part of his coaching involvement in the FINA world cup open water circuit.
Fabian has had the opportunity to train elite swimmers at altitude for the past two years at the Olympic Training center in Colorado Springs. By working with swimmers at the Olympic training center he has gained insight from working side by side with the best coaches in the nation. He has brought his experience from working as a part of the National team coaching staff back to Keene State to develop swimmers to their physiological potential by incorporating cutting edge stroke mechanics, training and teaching.
Fabian is currently the open water coordinator for New England Swimming. Fabian also runs a master's swim program at KSC, graduated from Hobart College in 1985 with a Bachelor of Science degree in biology and earned a doctorate in molecular biology in 1992 from the State University of New York at Buffalo. He obtained his post-doctoral training at the National Cancer Institute and worked as an assistant professor at Penn State and as an adjunct professor at Keene State.
Fabian, along with his wife Claire and children Max and Eva, reside in Keene.
Known for her competitiveness and leadership during her recently completed four-year Owl career, Katie Allenson has been named an assistant swim coach at Keene State College swim team.
Allenson, a native of Clifton Park, N.Y., was a top competitor for KSC in the 200 and 500-yard freestyle and relay events. She was a six-time All-New England swimmer and a member of five Little East champion relay teams. Allenson was a member of a talented Keene State team that won three LEC titles and captured two NEISDA championships.
Allenson also played softball at Keene State, earning All-New England and All-LEC honors.
Prior to attending Keene State, Allenson competed for USS
Swimming and on a Shenendehowa (N.Y.) High School swim team
that that won the Sectional championship her senior year.
A former head coach of the KSC swim program, David Mason
returned to the Spaulding Gym Pool deck as the Owls' diving coach
in 2006.
Mason, who spent eight seasons coaching the Owls (1987 - 1996),
helped KSC build a successful dual meet record and qualify an
increasing number of athletes for the New England championships
during his tenure.
Originally from Erie, Pa., Mason attended Indiana University of
Pennsylvania, where as a springboard diver he qualified for
national competition in his final two seasons.
While working toward his master's degree at IUP, Mason began
coaching the school's diving team. Upon graduation, he served as
the swim coach at several high schools in Pennsylvania and New
York, as well as the diving coach at Mercyhurst College.
Mason currently works in the physical education department at
Monadnock Regional High School, where he also served on the
football coaching staff for eight seasons. Mason resides in
Swanzey, N.H., with his wife Colleen and daughters Kylie and Maura.
Joel Feldman will serve as a volunteer assistant coach this season, working predominantly with backstroke swimmers. Feldman, who has been with the program the past four seasons, also coached at KSC under Head Coach Dave Mason from 1994 - 1996. She also served as an assistant coach at the Keene YMCA with current KSC Head Coach Jack Fabian from 1996 - 2000.
Her other college coaching experience includes Head Women's
Coach at Bucknell University for three years, Head Women's Coach at
Michigan State for one season, and an Assistant Women's Coach at
University of Colorado, where she graduated.
Feldman, who holds Masters Degrees from Wayne State University and
Plymouth State, works full time as a lecturer in the Physical
Education Department at Keene State College.
She continues to maintain her own fitness levels by swimming with the Masters group here at Keene State and competing for New England Masters. In the summer of 2007, she competed in the FINA World Masters Meet held at Stanford University.