Michael Grapner is in his 11th season as the diving coach for the Mountaineer swimming and diving program after joining the team in December 2010.
 
Grapner’s divers reached several milestones in the 2019-20 season. With the team finally able to call the Aquatic Center at Mylan Park home, the divers were able to train year-round on the facility’s state-of-the-art diving tower. At the 2020 NCAA Zone A Diving Championships, held in Morgantown at the Aquatic Center for the first time, redshirt sophomore Jacob Cardinal Tremblay and sophomore Nick Cover became the first divers to qualify for the NCAA Championships since 1983. The duo, who earned a pair of bids on platform, became Grapner’s first NCAA qualifiers of his coaching career.
 
Although the 2020 NCAA Championships were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Tremblay and Cover were honored as CSCAA All-Americans after the CSCAA Board of Directors altered the selection criteria. The duo became the first divers to receive the honor in program history.
 
Including Cover and Tremblay, 10 Mountaineer divers qualified for the 2020 Zone A Diving Championships, while redshirt senior Austin Smith and freshman Holly Darling earned All-Big 12 First Team honors at the Big 12 Championship.
 
Additionally, a trio of diving records were broken in 2019-20, all of which came at the 2020 Big 12 Swimming and Diving Championship, hosted by the Mountaineers at the Aquatic Center. Darling broke the women’s platform record in the prelims, while Cover also broke the men’s platform record in prelims. Cover’s performance was followed by another record-breaking showing by Smith, as he reclaimed the men’s platform record in the finals.
 
The 2018-19 season proved to be another successful one for the West Virginia University diving team, with accomplishments stretching from the Big 12 Championship to the NCAA Zone A Diving Championships.
 
At the conference meet, Grapner led freshmen Nick Cover and PJ Lenz to All-Big 12 First Team accolades, while sophomore Caleb Keck and redshirt freshman Jacob Cardinal Tremblay collected All-Big 12 Second Team accolades.
 
Four divers reached the podium on the men’s 1-meter, including Lenz in third and Cover in fourth, while senior Averly Hobbs finished in seventh on the women’s event. Lenz again collected the bronze medal on 3-meter, ahead of Jacob Cardinal Tremblay in fourth, while Cover grabbed bronze on the men’s platform.
 
One school diving record was broken in 2018-19, as Hobbs earned a program-record score of 312.89 on 1-meter springboard to take the event’s No. 1 spot against Seton Hall and Xavier in October. Hobbs bested the previous record of 297.45, set by Haily VanderPoel in 2014.
 
At the season’s end, the Mountaineers sent nine divers – Camille Burt, Cardinal Tremblay, Julia Calcut, Cover, Hobbs, Lenz, Emma Longley, Callie Smith and Madelyn Woods – to the 2019 NCAA Zone A Diving Championships.
 
Grapner led WVU divers to a highly successful campaign in 2017-18, which included some special recognition of his own. At the 2018 Big 12 Championship, Grapner was named the Men’s Diving Coach of the Meet after leading seniors Logan McHenry and Michael Proietto to the All-Big 12 First Team. Grapner also was instrumental in directing the women’s divers, who played a big role in the Mountaineers’ second-place team finishes.
 
The conference meet proved to be one for the record books for WVU, as McHenry and junior Austin Smith set all-time Mountaineer bests on 3-meter and platform, respectively. McHenry, who previously broke the 3-meter school record with a score of 380.80 in a tri-meet against Seton Hall and Xavier earlier in the year, earned a score of 390.80 in the preliminary round at the Big 12 meet.
 
For Smith, he topped the school record on platform dive with a score of 339.60 at the Big 12 Championship en route to a third-place finish.
 
Additionally, six WVU divers – Julia Calcut, Averly Hobbs, McHenry, Austin Smith, Callie Smith and Madelyn Woods – appeared at the NCAA Zone A Diving Championships in Piscataway, New Jersey. McHenry and Calcut registered event finals appearances on 1- and 3-meter.
 
The 2016-17 season saw seven divers advance to the NCAA Zone Championships, as multiple school records were broken. At the Big 12 Championship, Proietto notched a program-best 366.83 in the 1-meter and would go on to finish second in the event. Alex Obendorf also sketched his name into the program’s rich history, earning a then-school-record score of 332.70 on platform at the Big 12 Championship. The effort was good enough for a silver-medal finish.
 
Obendorf joined McHenry, Austin Smith, Calcut, Hobbs, Woods and Gerald Hodges to the NCAA Zones meet.
 
The WVU divers had one of the best showings at the 2016 NCAA Zone Championships in team history, with eight Mountaineers competing - Lindsay Schmidt, Woods, Calcut, Obendorf, McHenry, Proietto, Austin Smith and Emmott Blitch. Three Mountaineers advanced to finals in their events, as Proietto, Obendorf and Calcut reached finals sessions.
 
At the Big 12 Championship, Austin Smith set a school record mark of 322.55 on platform.
Grapner helped coach the Mountaineer men to a second-place finish overall at the 2016 conference championship, posting their best finish at the meet since joining the Big 12, while the women’s squad finished fourth.
 
Academically, 24 members of the WVU swimming and diving team were named to the 2016 Academic All-Big 12 Team.
 
In the 2014-15 season, Grapner coached four divers who earned All-Big 12 honors at the Big 12 Championship. On the men’s platform, Obendorf placed second with a score of 299.90 to earn All-Big 12 First Team accolades, while Proietto and McHenry earned All-Big 12 Second Team recognition for finishing fourth and fifth, respectively, in the event.
 
Schmidt set a school record of 322.60 on the women’s 3-meter board to earn All-Big 12 First Team accolades. Senior Haily VandePoel placed fourth overall with a score of 222.60 and was named to the All-Big 12 Second Team, and fellow senior Jennifer Rey finished eighth with a mark of 179.10 at the Big 12 Championship.
 
Grapner coached VandePoel to a top-eight finish at the 2014 NCAA Zone A Diving Championships. Four of Grapner’s divers went on to earn 2014 CSCAA Scholar All-America distinction.
 
The 2012-13 season was a banner year for the diving squad as Grapner sent six student-athletes to the NCAA Zone A Diving Championships. VandePoel highlighted the event for the Mountaineer women, finishing in seventh place on the 3-meter, while Liam McLaughlin took 16th on the 3-meter for the men.
 
At the 2013 Big 12 Championships, WVU featured four top-eight finishers on the men’s 1-meter, while the women’s 1-meter had two top-eight finishers. On the 3-meter, the men had three in the top eight and VandePoel placed fifth for the women.
 
In 2011-12, VandePoel and Richard Pokorny represented WVU at the NCAA Zone A Diving Championships, while three divers scored at the Big East Championships. For the men, Pokorny finished third on the 1-meter and third on the 3-meter, and Matt O’Neill took second on the 3-meter and 10th on the 1-meter. VandePoel finished sixth on the 3-meter for the women.
 
In his first season at the helm, O’Neill and Pokorny each qualified for the 2011 NCAA Zone A Diving Championships, while both divers also earned points at the Big East Championships.
 
Prior to joining WVU, Grapner served as the head coach of Redhawk Elite Diving (Aug. 2010-Dec. 2010) and Talawanda High School (Jan. 2007-Dec. 2010). He also served as head coach at the U.S. Elite Diving Academy satellite in the Oxford, Ohio (Aug. 2006-July 2010), Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy (Oct. 2007-March 2009), and was the interim coach at Miami (Ohio) for the 2006 fall semester.
 
While Grapner was coaching for U.S. Elite Diving, the team won the 2010 USA Speedo Junior National Team Championship and the 2010 U.S. Diving East National Team Championship. He has also coached at the USA Diving Junior National and International Championships.
 
Grapner’s high school athletes have seen much success as well. Grapner has coached state finalists in Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio, including a Kentucky boys state champion, Kentucky’s two-time girls runner-up and an Ohio girls runner-up.
 
Grapner was the meet director for the 2010 USA Diving East Junior National Championship, the 2009 USA Diving Region 4 Championship and the 2006 Miami University Diving Invitational. He also served as a three-year coach at the Indiana University and Miami University Diving Camps.
 
At the collegiate level, Grapner was a two-year member of the UNC Wilmington diving squad from 2003-05. While at UNC Wilmington, he became a two-time conference finalist, helping the squad won two conference championships. He also represented the squad on the Student Athlete Athletic Council in 2004.
 
Grapner graduated from Miami (Ohio) University with a bachelor’s degree in health sports studies in 2008, while earning his master’s from Ohio University in sport science and coaching education in 2010.