After Record-Setting Season, Dartmouth Extends Milana Socha’s Contract as Swimming And Diving Head Coach

Courtesy: Dartmouth Sports

HANOVER, N.H. — Mike Harrity, Dartmouth’s Haldeman Family Director of Athletics and Recreation, has announced that Milana Socha has agreed to a contract extension to continue as head coach of the Dartmouth swimming and diving program. Socha will enter her fifth season at the helm for the 2026-27 season.

“Milana is building a program that keeps getting better, and it starts with how she coaches,” Harrity said. “She’s a teacher who is committed to developing every student-athlete who comes through the program and helping each one find the best version of themselves in and out of the pool. That kind of growth and continuous improvement drives Dartmouth Swimming and Diving, and we’re excited to keep building with Milana.”

Socha’s most recent season marked continued progress for the program, highlighted by record-setting performances, NCAA qualifiers, and the men’s program’s best Ivy League Championship finish since 2014.

“I’d like to thank Mike Harrity and Taurian Houston for the opportunity to continue leading the swimming and diving program,” said Socha. “I appreciate their belief in this team and what we’re building together. We have made some great strides in the pool and on the boards over the past four seasons, and I am incredibly proud of the student-athletes’ commitment to chasing excellence.”

The swimming and diving program’s most recent season was defined by a wave of record-breaking events: seven new pool records and 14 new team records, the most team records set in a single season since the program began tracking the mark in 1975. Student-athletes also turned in 83 all-time top-10 program performances, the most in any season since 2017-18. That surge has reshaped the program’s record book; as of the end of 2025-26, Socha’s tenure now accounts for 46.1% of all-time top-10 performances across both the men’s and women’s programs.

The men’s team closed the season ranked 27th in the Division I mid-major rankings, which is as high nationally as it has ever been among mid-major programs since the rankings began in 2016-17. The women’s team finished the season ranked among the top 50 mid-major programs for the first time since 2021.

Since Socha’s first season as head coach in 2022-23, both the men’s and women’s programs have shown steady growth in SwimCloud score — the metric that best captures week-to-week competitiveness against Ivy League dual-meet competition — rising from 598.85 for the men’s team in her first year to 711.30 this season, yielding a gain of 18.8%. The women’s team posted a similarly steady climb in SwimCloud score, rising from 529.72 in Socha’s first season to 665.32 this season, with a gain of 25.6% since her arrival.

The most recent Ivy League Championships were an indication of the positive direction of the program. First years Andrew Chou ’29 and Jihoon Jung ’29 both broke into the A-final, where Chou finished sixth overall in 1:41.87 in the 200-yard backstroke, a swim that also set a new program record. Jung landed the final A-final spot with a lifetime-best 1:56.66 in the 200-yard breaststroke in preliminaries, making his the second-fastest time for that event in program history. The effort of the first years was backed up by second-year Jacob Turner ’28, who medaled with a third-place finish in the 400 IM, highlighting the depth of the team’s talent.

On the diving side, eight divers qualified for NCAA Zones. Standout diver McCoy Lyman ’28 qualified for the NCAA Championships on both boards, making him the first Dartmouth men’s swimming and diving team member to compete at the national championship meet since 2014, and the first diver to compete since 1999.

The growth and progress under Socha’s leadership extend beyond the pool, reflecting a culture where athletic and academic excellence go hand in hand. The women’s team’s fall-term GPA ranked second in the Ivy League and tied for 17th nationally, while the men’s team ranked fourth in the Ivy League and tied for eighth nationally. The program produced 13 individually named College Swimming & Diving Coaches Association of America (CSCAA) Scholar All-Americans this past year, the most in at least 15 years.

“Competing as a high-level D1 swimmer or diver isn’t easy,” Socha continued. “Doing so while achieving academically at an elite Ivy League school takes a special level of commitment. Dartmouth creates the opportunity to pursue greatness in multiple arenas at once, through community support, passion, and tenacity. I’m honored to help carry forward that tradition as we continue the rise of our program.”

Socha’s appointment as head coach in 2022 was a return to Dartmouth Swimming and Diving. She first joined the program as an assistant coach in 2017, spending three seasons coordinating training, leading recruiting efforts, and building relationships with student-athletes under then-head coach Jamie Holder. In 2020, she left Hanover to become an assistant coach at Northwestern, spending two seasons with the program before returning to Dartmouth to lead the team she had once helped build.

Socha’s fifth season as head coach will begin this fall as the program looks to build on its 2025-26 momentum, including new team and pool records, and its largest group of individual Scholar All-Americans.