Chad Cradock
Head Coach RAC & Head Coach UMBC Men's & Women's Swimming & Diving
One of the most decorated swimmers in UMBC history, Chad Cradock returns for his fourteenth season with RAC. In addition to his duties as head coach with RAC, he is the Head Coach for the UMBC Men's and Women's varsity team. He has been involved with the Retrievers as a swimmer and coach for over eighteen years.
Cradock capped his career by earning ECAC Swimmer of the Meet honors. The native of Barrie, Ontario, Canada won the 200, 500, and 1650 freestyle events in Gloucester, NJ, breaking pool records in the 200 and 500 and leading UMBC to a second-place finish. He had captured the 500 and 1650 as a junior at the ECAC's. He now holds only the 500 free record after his swimmers Evan Patrick broke the 200 Free in 2001 and Ryan Karrer this year in the 1650 free. For his accomplishments at UMBC he was inducted into the UMBC Hall of Fame February 1, 2003. He was named Head Varsity Swim Coach in spring, 2001.
Another one of Cradock's accomplishments is that he recorded Canada's top time in the 1650 in 1996, recorded at the US Open. He was also named UMBC's Matt Skalsky - Outstanding Scholar Athlete in his senior year, and earned a degree in Psychology. Cradock also served as president of UMBC's Student Athlete Council. Prior to coming to RAC, Cradock was the Assistant Director at Camp Chikopi, coaching alongside Olympic coaches.
As the Head Age Group Coach, the Retriever Aquatic Club rose to a new level with 20 Top 16 swims and one national age group record. Through Chad's work with the Senior group he has had over 40 Sectional qualifiers and five Senior National Qualifiers. He led the Masters team to the 1998 YMCA short course national championships.
During Cradock's ten years as college coach he was named coach of the year for the Northeast Conference (women) 2002, East Coast Athletic Conference (men) 2002 and 2003 and for the America East Conference (men) in 2004, 2005, 2010 and 2011. Chad led the Women's team to win the2002 women Northeast Conference Championship and win the 2002 and 2003 Men's ECAC Championships. The Men's team had dominated the America East over the past eight years taking the gold in 2004, 2005,2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011. His Men's and Women's team broke the school record for wins with a 12-1 record in 2005 and became the first UMBC Women's team to win an America East Championship in 2007 and then won again in 2008. The women brought home the crown again in 2011. Cradock was recognized for his success by being named in October 2010 UMBC’s Alumni of the year.
Other College accomplishments the Women's team had its first NCAA qualifier in 13 years in 2002. Over the past FIVE seasons his Men's and Women's team were all American's. Ian Stucky, of the Men's team, was valedictorian. Geza Szabo and Keilan Freeman was ESPN's Scholar Athlete and Adam Blais won the MACDA Scholar athlete.
Over the last 10 years, 24 RAC swimmers chose to stay at UMBC and swim under him. As the head Age Group Coach, the Retriever Aquatic Club rose to a new level with 20 Top 16 swims and one national age group record. Through Chad's work with the Senior group he has had over 25 Sectional qualifiers and three Senior National Qualifiers. This past year the Retriever program sent 18 swimmers to Sectionals and placed 12 on the Maryland Zone Team.