Nathan Townsend, a former standout at Southwestern (Texas) and an assistant coach of a university swimming club in Ireland, joined the Oklahoma Christian staff as an assistant coach in August 2018, working with head coach Josh Davis.
Townsend, originally from Kingwood, Texas, served from January-August 2018 as an assistant coach for the University College of Dublin Swimming Club and completed a master's degree in Coaching Science in Sport at UCD. With the swim club, he worked under former Irish Olympic swimmer Earl McCarthy.
At Southwestern, which competes in NCAA Division III, Townsend earned All-Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference honors in the 50-yard freestyle (2017), the 400-yard freestyle relay (2015, 2016, 2017) and the 200-yard freestyle relay (2015, 2017). He helped Southwestern to SCAC titles in the two relays as a senior.
The kinesiology major made the SCAC Academic Honor Roll each year from 2014 through 2017 and was involved with Southwestern's Student-Athlete Advisory Committee. He presented his senior research capstone paper, titled "Effect of Block Design on Relay Start Performance," at the Texas American College of Sports Medicine Conference in 2017.
