Matt Sellman, who earned All-America honors as a Pacific Lutheran University swimmer in the early 1990s before becoming a collegiate head coach, will return to his alma mater as aquatics director and head swim coach.

Sellman, who graduated from Pacific Lutheran University in 1996 and later earned a master's degree from University of Findlay (Ohio), takes over for his mentor, Jim Johnson, who announced his retirement after 31 years at PLU.

"I am looking forward to taking the reins at PLU and working hard to reach new heights at the NCAA level," Sellman said. "I am excited to meet the team, start building relationships, and begin moving forward into a new, rich era of PLU swimming."

“Matt will be a tremendous asset to the overall Pacific Lutheran athletic program,” said PLU athletic director Laurie Turner. “He has a track record of success as a coach at the Division III level and is very familiar with Pacific Lutheran and the Northwest Conference.”

Sellman comes to PLU from the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Va., where he served as head swim coach and aquatics director from 2007 to the present. He led the Eagles to six Capital Athletic Conference championships in three seasons, twice was named CAC Men's Swimming Coach of the Year and once the CAC Women's Swimming Coach of the Year. In all, he coached 44 UMW swimmers to NCAA Division III qualifying standards, and nine of his athletes earned All-America honors.

Prior to coaching at Mary Washington, Sellman was head swimming coach and aquatics director at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Ore., from 2001-07. At Lewis & Clark, he rebuilt a program that went from a string of last place finishes in the Northwest Conference to achieving a second-place finish at the 2006 women's conference meet. Additionally under Sellman's guidance, the Pioneers not only ended a string of eight consecutive years without a conference dual meet victory, the women's program claimed two straight nine-win seasons while the men's team claimed back-to-back .500 seasons for the first time in almost two decades.

While an undergraduate at Pacific Lutheran, Sellman was a three-time academic and athletic All-American, twice was team captain and most inspirational swimmer, and three times received the team's outstanding swimmer award.

- PLU -