Erik Matheson begins his fourth season as the Western Colorado women's swimming and diving team in 2020-21.
The 2019-20 season saw the Mountaineers take fifth at the 2020 RMAC Championships with five Mountaineers earning All-RMAC honors - including first-teamer Savannah Tice, who won the 100 backstroke RMAC title and took second in the 200. Tice would go on to be named an All-American in both events as well after the NCAA Championships were canceled due to COVID-19 pandemic precautions. As a team, the Mountaineers would go 7-4 in duals, the most wins since winning seven during the 2015-16 season.
Over the course of the 2018-19 season Matheson's athletes broke six school records while recording numerous lifetime bests. The team finished fifth at the RMAC Championships and went on to place 19th at the National Championships.
Also during the 2018-19 season the Mountaineers sent two swimmers to the National meet where Randi Yarnell became the programs first ever National Champion.
During his first season with Western, Matheson's athletes broke nine school records while swimming numerous personal bests. At the 2018 RMAC Championship, Mountaineer swimmers young and old delivered personal best performances to make valuable contributions to the team's fifth-place finish.
In 2018, Matheson also guided standout Randi Yarnell to arguably her strongest season to date. Yarnell broke three individual school records and also swam on two relay records. At the RMAC Championships, she won the 50, 100, and 200-yard freestyle en route to being named both the RMAC Women's Swimmer of the Meet and Swimmer of the Year.
At the 2018 NCAA Championships, Yarnell contested four events and finished as national runner-up in the 100 yard freestyle to earn All-American honors.
Matheson joins Mountaineer Athletics after six seasons at East Los Angeles College. At ELAC, Matheson was the head of the aquatics program, which included a women's water polo team and a women's swimming and diving team. As a Huskie, Matheson coached 15 National Junior College All-Americans, broke two South Coast Conference records and his teams broke every school swimming record.
In June 2013, Matheson restarted a women's water polo team after the program was cut in 1999. In their first season, Matheson led his team to an eighth-place in the South Coast Conference.
In June 2011, Matheson became head coach of women's swimming and diving at East Los Angeles College. His coaching and recruiting talents helped bring the team back after a 10-year hiatus. The first season back in 2012 included growing the team to 20 swimmers who earned a fifth place standing in dual meets and a seventh place standing at the South Coast Conference Championships.
In 2006, Matheson was head coach of men's water polo at Santa Monica College - again building the team after it was cut in 2002. This built on a long history of coaching at SMC since 1999, as faculty and assistant coach for men's and women's swimming and water polo teams. While at SMC, he coached a USA Swimming National Qualifier, a CCCAA State Championships Swimmer of the Meet, three CCCAA State Recorder setters, three CCCAA State Championship Individual Winners, 22 Western State Conference Champions, 33 National Junior College All Americans, and 56 CCCAA state championship qualifiers.
Since 2005, Matheson has worked summers as a Los Angeles County Ocean Lifeguard using the ocean lifeguard environment and competitions to sharpen and advance his open water swimming abilities and knowledge. He continues his competitive swimming by competing in the Los Angeles County Ocean Lifeguard competitions in the summer.
Matheson has extensive masters swim team coaching experience with Southern California Aquatics (SCAQ), from 1998-2005. While at SCAQ, he helped train triathletes, open water swimmers, pool competitors and fitness swimmers, while learning the ins and outs of masters swimming.
From 1996-2004, Matheson coached a youth age group USA Swimming team, Team Santa Monica (TSM). In 2001, he took over as head coach, and under his leadership, it grew from less than 100 members to 250 members - establishing TSM with solid national, junior national and senior groups with USA Swimming National Qualifiers and 13 Junior National qualifiers.
During that same period, Matheson spent two seasons (1998-1999) as head coach of Santa Monica High School boys and girls swimming. At SAMOHI, he led the team to two second-place finishes in the Bay League and 22 CIF Division II qualifiers. While still in college, Matheson joined his alma mater as an assistant coach for the Culver City High School water polo/swimming teams for five years from 1993-1998.
After receiving an athletic scholarship through Cal State Northridge's Division I swim team, Matheson set campus records in two relays while completing his bachelor's degree in kinesiology with an emphasis in exercise science. While earning his master's degree in kinesiology: biomechanics, Matheson refined his swimming knowledge as a research and teaching associate at CSUN and focused his research projects on competitive swimmers. His thesis project, "A Kinematic Analysis of the Breaststroke Kick", was presented at the 2011 International Society of Biomechanics in Sports Conference, in Porto, Portugal.
