Wittenberg Swimming and Diving Head Coach Samantha Williams Benedict (2021-25)

Bio

Wittenberg University Vice President and Director of Athletics and Recreation Brian Agler announced that Samantha Williams Benedict had been selected as head coach of the men's and women's swimming and diving programs in 2021. In 2024, Benedict added the title of Assistant Director of Athletics for Compliance.

Following four seasons that featured showed steady improvement, Benedict resigned her position in August 2025. During her tenure as the Tigers' head coach, Benedict guided the Tigers to improved finishes in the extremely competitive North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC), highlighted by sixth place for the women in the 2024 and 2025 league championships. Student-athletes on both the men's and women's teams earned a host of academic awards under Benedict's direction, and several women's swimmers posted times that rank among the best in program history.

Benedict came to Wittenberg after two seasons as the head coach of the boys' and girls' swimming teams at Mount Vernon High School in Mount Vernon, Ohio, where she guided every swimmer to at least one personal-best time. She also spent the 2019-20 season as a volunteer assistant coach at her alma mater, Kenyon College, helping the team's swimmers achieve multiple record-breaking performances before the NCAA Division III Championship meet was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Benedict earned her bachelor's degree in Spanish from Kenyon in 2016, at which time she already had extensive experience in a wide range of positions related to swimming and diving and athletics administration. She coached in three different youth swimming programs in and around her hometown of Mount Vernon while still an undergraduate, and she also participated in the Branch Rickey Mentorship Program through the NCAC during the 2015-16 school year.

Benedict's first college coaching experience came as a volunteer assistant at Kenyon, one of the traditional powers of NCAA Division III men's and women's swimming and diving, while still an undergraduate at the college. After graduating, her first professional stop came at Wilmington College, where she was the assistant to the director of athletics, a position with the NCAA Ethnic Minority and Women's Internship Grant, from 2016-2018.

That was followed by one season at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, where she served as the assistant coach for the men's and women's swimming and diving teams for the 2018-19 season and even stepped in as the interim head coach for three months following the season. After helping every swimmer on the roster achieve at least one personal-best time, Benedict was instrumental in recruiting a strong class of 13 student-athletes in 2019.