Lars Jorgensen, Kentucky Swimming & Diving Coach, resigns

One week after a report came out that Kentucky Swimming and Diving coach Lars Jorgensen was suspended pending an NCAA investigation, Jorgensen has resigned.

UK Athletics Director Mitch Barnhart announced the news in a press release from the university on Wednesday afternoon. Jorgensen has been Kentucky’s Men’s and Women’s Swimming and Diving Coach since the 2013-14 season, prior to which he served as an assistant coach in 2012-13. Barnhart said Kentucky will begin a national search for his replacement.

On June 22, SwimSwam, which covers competitive swimming, reported that Jorgensen had been suspended from the program since early May pending an investigation into potential NCAA compliance rules violations. One source told the outlet that the entire coaching staff was suspended for one week in May but all have returned except for associate head coach Michael Camper, who resigned after five seasons.

Camper’s departure comes two years after he was promoted from assistant to associate head coach of the Wildcats. Prior to arriving at Kentucky in 2018, the Virginia native and former NC State standout served as an assistant at Pitt. Camper did not respond to SwimSwam’s requests for comment, but his LinkedIn profile indicates he recently took a new job outside of the swimming world as a territory manager for Gardner Inc., a lawn equipment distributor.

According to the source, Jorgensen was also suspended for Kentucky’s season opener vs. Texas A&M last November. Per the report, he did not tell the team why and the team was not told of the issues with the staff until April 30, the day after the transfer portal closed for women’s swimmers, and each had to participate in interviews with Kentucky’s compliance department as part of the investigation. Kentucky did not respond to SwimSwam’s request for comment.

Jorgensen, who swam for Team USA in the 1998 Olympics in Seoul, just finished his 10th season as Kentucky’s Swimming and Diving Coach. In 2021, the women’s team won its first-ever SEC title, for which Jorgensen took home SEC Women’s Swimming Coach of the Year honors. Since Jorgensen took over in 2013, Kentucky has had nine straight Top 25 team finishes at the NCAA Championships, not including the canceled 2020 NCAA Championships.