Bryan Christiansen

Coach Bryan spent the 2021-22 season recruiting for the new swim team that started at Quincy in 2022. Quincy had one of the best first years any program has ever had. They earned five NCAA DII B cuts, finished the dual meet season with an exact .500 record, and got 8th out of 10 teams in the GLVC, notably one of the strongest conferences in DII. Every athlete had at least one best time at the GLVC Championships. The men's team also finished with the second-highest GPA in all of DII. Coach Bryan is committed to a fun environment along with competitive excellence. Coach Bryan has worked Nike Swim Camps at Nazareth College for the past four years and before that worked Hartwick College's camp for two years. He was also the Camp Director at SUNY New Paltz for Summer 2016 and 2017.

Bryan Christiansen comes to QU after spending three seasons as the head swimming coach for Frostburg State University from 2018-2021.

During this time, he guided the Frostburg Bobcats through its first season at the NCAA Division II level. In his last year the Bobcats had seven MEC champions at the combined GMAC/MEC Championships, including Swimmer of the Year Anthony Giuseppetti and Freshman of the Year Andy Creelman. Both athletes repeated these honors at Frostburg State’s Athletics Awards Ceremony, earning overall Athlete of the Year and Freshman of the Year awards for Frostburg State respectively. The men finished fifth overall and third in the MEC, while the women finished seventh overall and fourth in the MEC.

In 2020, the Bobcat men finished eighth at the combined GMAC/MEC Championships (fifth in the MEC) and the women finished tenth (sixth in MEC). Anthony Giuseppetti was the lone MEC champion in the 200-yard backstroke on his way to seven All-MEC swims, including four relays. Haley Benedictis was named Frostburg’s Comeback Athlete of the Year after recovering from surgery and becoming a major contributor to the team and eventual captain.

Before that, in their last year at the Division III level and in his first year at the helm, Christiansen guided both programs to a fourth-place finish in the Capital Athletic Conference and three athletes earned four All-CAC Second Team honors. Senior Maddie Weinberger, junior Elizabeth DeMonte, and sophomore Luke Holloway all broke program records leading up to their CAC honors. The final DIII men’s program finished with the team’s highest ever Conference point total. In his three-year tenure, Christiansen’s swimmers have broken 54 team and pool records.

Frostburg has also had successful Paralympians. Connor Gioffreda was named to the US National Team and qualified for the Parapan American Games in 2019 and set a world record in the SM6 1500 freestyle. He qualified for the Tokyo 2020 US Trials but was not named to the US Paralympic Team. Alumni Zach Shattuck swam in Tokyo and made the finals in the 200 IM.

When Christiansen arrived at FSU the Men’s Team had a 2.6 GPA and the women were 2.9. In his tenure this has increased to a 3.3 and 3.4 respectively and both squads were named Scholar All-Americans in 2019 and 2020.

Christiansen was the assistant coach at John Carroll University in 2017, where he was part of a coaching staff that was named the Ohio Athletic Conference Women's Staff of the Year, while leading both the men and women to the 2018 OAC Championship Title. JCU had 19 Conference Champions, seven Conference Records and two athletes All-American at the 2018 NCAA Championship.

Prior to his tenure with JCU, Christiansen served as an assistant coach at SUNY New Paltz from 2015-2017. New Paltz finished in second place on both sides both years he was there. He coached eight conference champions, set three SUNYAC records, 14 varsity records, and 13 pool records. The SUNY New Paltz swimming teams both went undefeated in the 2016-2017 season.

Christiansen has coached swimming since 2008. In that time, he has coached club, high school, Masters, and summer leagues. He has also been active with summer swim camps, directing the New Paltz Elite Swim Camp from 2016-17.

Christiansen graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Hiram College, earning his bachelor's degree in history in 2008. He was a three-year captain of the men's swim team and was named the MVP of the 2006-2007 season. He was the lone senior on an 800-meter freestyle relay team record that is still standing as of 2021.

He earned his master's degree in communication and media technology from the Rochester Institute of Technology. He lives in Quincy with his wife, Sarah, and cat, Missy.