BERKELEY, California, August 26. DAVE Durden, the head coach of the University of Maryland, has accepted the head men's swimming coach position at the University of California. According to a Terrapin swimmer, Durden held a meeting today to inform his swimmers that he will be leaving Maryland to take over the top men's spot at Berkeley.
Durden has not returned a voice mail left by Swimming World Magazine, and the California media relations department cannot confirm the hiring.
Durden spent two years at the University of Maryland as the head coach of the combined program. Last year, he helped the women to sixth-place and the men to eighth-place finish at ACCs. In 2005-06, he led the women's team to a fifth-place finish at the ACC Championships where senior Sasha Malanina won the 400 IM ACC title. He also coached 2006 graduate Krisztina Kovacs and senior Malanina, who both earned All-American honorable mention at the 2006 NCAA Championships. He also led the 2005-06 Maryland men's team to an eighth-place finish at the 2006 ACC Championships.
Prior to working at Maryland, Durden spent five seasons at Auburn University. During his final season at Auburn, he served as the assistant head men's coach for the 2005 NCAA National Championship Team. Before that, he was an assistant coach for both the men's and women's programs at Auburn.
In his time at Auburn, the Tiger men's and women's teams won six national team championships – the men winning in 2003, 2004 and 2005, and the women winning in 2002, 2003 and 2004. The Auburn women finished second at the NCAA Nationals in 2005.
Durden has also spent time at Auburn as the primary coach for a number of world-class, postgraduate swimmers who were preparing for World Championship and World University Games teams. He was the primary coach for multiple World Record Holders and NCAA Record Holders as well as the men's recruiting coordinator.
In 2004, Durden coached three swimmers who represented the United States at the Olympic Games. Durden served as the head coach for the Panama team at the 2004 Olympic Games and the 2003 Pan-American Games.
He is a NCAA Division I Certified Coach, a member of U.S. Swimming and a member of the American Swimming Coaches Association.
Before coaching at Auburn, Durden served as an assistant for Irvine Novaquatics and Dr. Dave Salo, where he assisted in general coaching with the Olympic Trials Group and helped place four swimmers on the 2000 U.S. Olympic Team.
Durden is a 1998 graduate of the University of California-Irvine and earned a degree in electrical engineering.
Special thanks to Maryland for providing some biographical information.