LOCK HAVEN, Pa. — Bree Kelley was named the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) Men’s Swimming Coach of the Year for the second straight season, as the conference announced their 2024 swimming postseason awards on Friday afternoon.
(Photo by Bri Nellis)
Last year, Kelley made history by becoming the first woman in the history of the PSAC to win a Swimming Coach of the Year award, capping what had been to that point the most successful season of her head coaching career.
She not only matched that distinction in 2023-24, but in many ways surpassed it, with another exceptional effort on the deck.
The Golden Eagle men’s swimming team finished second at the 2024 PSAC Championships, their best finish as a team since 2011.
Clarion men combined for three individual and one relay conference championships over the course of the week in Carlisle, taking home the gold in the 100 Fly, the 200 Fly, the 100 Back, and the 400 Medley Relay. They also racked up a host of other finals appearances that week, stacking points in events like the 200 IM, in which they had four finalists.
Individually, the duo of Connor Cary and David Bocci both earned bids to the NCAA Division II Swimming & Diving Championships in March. That duo combined for three All-America Honorable Mention honors over the course of the week at the SPIRE Center, with both cracking the top 16 in the 200 Fly and Cary doing so in the 100 Fly.
Kelley remains the only woman in the history of the conference to win a swimming coach of the year award.
She is the first men’s swimming coach to win the award in back-to-back years since Bloomsburg’s Stu Marvin did it in 2016-17.
Kelley’s honor in 2024 represents the seventh total time a Golden Eagle coach has won the award; Bill Miller won the award five times from 1990-98.
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