Brendon Bray

Reno native Brendon Bray enters his seventh year as the head coach of the women’s swimming and diving program. A graduate of Reno High School and a former collegiate standout swimmer, Bray will start the 2022-23 campaign for the Wolf Pack with 18 years of coaching experience underneath his belt.

Bray has seen much success in his four seasons at Nevada. The Wolf Pack saw a second place finish at the conference championships during the 2019, 2020 and 2021 seasons which is a one place improvement from the prior three seasons. In the 2017 and 2018 season, Nevada finished with third place finishes. However, the 2017 and 2018 team ended the seasons finishing 27^th and 24^th in the country at the NCAA Championships. Those two NCAA championship finishes were the highest placing of any Mountain West member team in both the 2017 (27^th) and 2018 (24^th) seasons.

During the 2020-2021 season, Bray helped junior Julia Adamczyk, to a Mountain West gold medal, in the 200 IM and 200 fly. Reno native, Benedict Nagy and Donna dePolo in the 400 IM and 200 breast, also won a gold medal in their respectively events. He also led the 400-medley relay team composed by Josien Wijkhuijs, Wiktoria Samula, Adamczyk and Caitlyn McHugh to a Mountain West title and a new school record. dePolo also set a new school record in the 100 breast that led her to qualify for the NCAA Championships. With a time of 59.69, dePolo establish a new school record, along with the second fastest time in school history in the 200 breast with 2.09.92 along with qualifying to the Wave II of the Olympic trials.

During the 2019-20 season, Bray helped senior Andressa Cholodovskis to another Mountain West gold medal, this time in the 200 free. He also led the 200-medley relay team comprised of Cholodovskis, Colette Berkenfield, Josien Wijkhuijs and Donna dePolo to a silver medal performance while breaking the school record. It was also the highest finish at MWC for the relay squad in program history. dePolo, also set a new school record in the 100 breast with a time of 1:00.30 along with qualifying for the Olympic Trials in both the 100 and 200 breast. The team collected three Mountain West Swimmer of the Week awards in dePolo, Cholodovskis and Wiktoria Samula over the course of the 2019-20 season.

In the 2018-19 season, Nevada repeated as the Mountain West Champions in the 800 free release with Rebecca Murray, Caitlyn Richardson, Andressa Cholodovskis and Caitlyn McHugh. Bray also coached Rebecca Murray to back-to-back championships in the 100 free and Andressa Cholodovskis to a championship in the 200 IM. The season also saw a 10 year school record fall in the 200 freestyle relay. The relay team at the Phill Hansal Invitational broke the record that had been standing since 1999, with a time of 1:31.10.

During the 2017-18 season the Pack won its first ever Mountain West Championship in a relay event when the 800 free relay composed of Rebecca Murray, Caitlyn Richardson, Andressa Cholodovskis and Polish Olympian Diana Sokolowska took home the gold medal. Bray also coached both Teresa Baerens (200 IM) and Rebecca Murray (100 free) to conference individual championships.

On top of the success in the pool, Bray established a tradition of excellent academic achievement with his teams as a head coach. From 2013-18 his team held a 3.5 cumulative GPA and ranked in the top 15 nationally in three straight seasons. During the 2016-17 season Nevada posted a team GPA of 3.57, which was good enough to be ranked amongst the best in the nation at No. 15. In 2017 Nevada also had the top GPA of all athletic teams at the University with a 3.56 and then again in 2018 with a 3.61.

Before coming to Nevada, Bray was an assistant coach in the Pac-12 conference at Washington between 2005-2007 then moved to Mountain West Conference member San Diego State to serve as the assistant coach and then later as the associate head coach from 2007-2013. In 2013 Bray was hired for his first head coaching job in Conference USA with the North Texas Mean Green where he served in that position for 3 seasons before coming to Nevada.

Prior to joining the Pack, Bray led North Texas to one of its best seasons in recent program history, highlighting his building process as the Mean Green transitioned into a new conference. North Texas posted a 7-4 dual record in 2015-16, finishing with the second-most dual wins and second-best winning percentage in school history. Bray also helped the team to a 4^th place finish at the Conference USA championships which was the highest finish in C-USA history.

Bray helped freshman Rebekah Bradley win a conference title in the 200-yard backstroke, which marked the program’s first individual C-USA title. While at North Texas Bray also worked with school record holder and World Championship participant Sarah Vaisse who was a breaststroke specialist from France.

Bray arrived to North Texas from San Diego State, where he coached the Aztecs for six seasons from 2007-13 and helped turn the program into a national contender. Bray was an assistant coach at SDSU before being promoted to associate head coach.
Prior to Bray’s arrival at SDSU, the program had finished last at the conference meet for five straight seasons. After helping recruit the fourth-best recruiting class in the nation in 2009, Bray then led the Aztecs to its first Mountain West championship in program history in 2011 before repeating as league champions in 2013.

Bray elevated SDSU to a peak No. 9 national ranking in NCAA Division I according to CollegeSwimming.com and frequent top 25 CSCAA rankings. During Bray’s tenure, the Aztecs broke every single swimming and diving program record and posted a 77-14 overall dual record, becoming a conference and regional power. Bray coached three Mountain West Swimmers of the Year, six NCAA All-Americans and 13 individual NCAA Championship participants during his tenure. SDSU also posted a 26-1 dual record in three seasons following Bray’s promotion into the role of associate head coach.

Bray began his coaching career at his alma mater, Washington, where he served as an undergraduate assistant from 2004-05 before being promoted to a men’s and women’s assistant head coach from 2005-07. As the program’s recruiting coordinator, Bray oversaw all recruiting operations and helped bring the top-ranked recruit in the nation to Washington in 2007. Bray also coached multiple NCAA qualifiers and NCAA Championship scorers while at UW.

After graduating as a three-time state champion at Reno High School, Bray went on to become a four-year collegiate letter winner. He began his collegiate career at Utah, competing for one season before transferring to Washington. Bray was a three-year letter winner with the Huskies and won the team’s most improved award as a junior and most inspirational award as a senior. Bray was a senior national qualifier and Pac-12 championship participant while at UW. He has also been a participant at the USA Swimming National Championships.

Bray received a bachelor’s degree in economics from Washington in 2005 before earning a master’s degree in intercollegiate athletic leadership at UW in 2007. Bray resides in Reno with his wife Beth, sons Calvin and Chase, and two English Bulldogs, Dwight and Daisy.