Oct. 3, 2013

 The North Texas diving program has come a long way since Jim Pyrch arrived in Denton in 2008. When Pyrch pulled into town as the new diving coach, the Mean Green program had two divers with little experience. Fast forward to today and the diving program has six divers, including two senior divers who have helped rewrite the record books.

In the past five years at North Texas, Pyrch has established a reputable diving program in Denton. During the 2012-13 season, Pyrch had multiple Mean Green divers qualify for the NCAA Zone Meet for the third year in a row. Rebecca Taylor became the first North Texas diver to advance to the finals of the NCAA Zone, placing 15th in the 3-meter dive. Taylor also competed in the platform dive at Zones, becoming only the second North Texas diver to do so.

Catherine Johnson joined Taylor at the NCAA Zone meet after placing third in both the one-and three-meter dives at the Sun Belt Conference Championships.

In the last five years under Pyrch, three different Mean Green divers have stood on the podium in the combined one and three-meter dives at the conference championships. Johnson has become the most decorated diver in North Texas history, winning four silver medals and two bronze medals in three years at the conference championships.

Johnson and Rebecca Taylor combined to earn conference Diver of the Week honors three times under Pyrch's watch last year. In the last five years, North Texas has received 14 diver of the week awards.

In the top 10 one-and-three-meter scores in school history, all of them have come under the watch of Pyrch.

A two-time National Diving Coach of the Year (1987, 1993), Pyrch has extensive international coaching experience with the US National Diving team, and spent nearly a quarter of a century as the diving coach at Yale.

Pyrch and the diving team are in action this weekend when the squad faces Arkansas on Saturday, Oct. 5 at 9:30 a.m. in the PEB Building.

The swimming team competes in the North Texas Relays on Friday, Oct. 4 in Southlake and then takes on Arkansas at 10 a.m. in the Pohl Recreation Center.