Since becoming the head coach of the men’s and women’s swimming & diving teams in 1995, Shannon O’Brien has built a program of excellence as a coach, teacher, motivator and role model.
Now in her 26th year, her teams have enjoyed unprecedented success, especially over the past five years. In that span, the men and women have a combined dual meet record of 71-6 with six undefeated seasons, six Liberty League Championship Meet titles and NCAA Championship Meet participants every year, including the first relay to qualify in school history.
The 2019-20 campaign marked the fourth undefeated dual meet season in the past five years for the men's team (8-0; 11-1 with RPI Kumpf Invite), which went on to capture its fifth consecutive conference championship. The women sent sophomore Megan Beaulieu to the national meet for the second straight year, though the event was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The women (6-1) and men (7-0) combined for a 13-1 record in 2018-19 with O'Brien and her assistants earning their fourth straight men's Liberty League Coaching Staff of the Year award.
She captured Coaching Staff of the Year for both the women's and men's seasons after the teams went 16-1 (25-1) in 2017-18. The women set the school mark with an undefeated, nine-win campaign (14-0) and the men were 7-1 (11-1). Both squads captured Liberty League Championship Meet victories and the women qualified a school record six swimmers for Nationals, including the first relay in program history. Leading the way was Shanny Lin, the most decorated swimmer in school history, who was making her fourth appearance as a qualifier in the butterfly.
Lin was the national runner-up in the 200-butterfly in 2016-17 to cap a season in which four women swam at the NCAA Meet after the team was 7-1 in dual meets and placed second at both the league and state championships. The men were 8-0, won the Liberty League Championship and were second at the New York State Championship.
In 2015-16, O'Brien led both squads to undefeated dual meet records (14-0 without RPI Kump Invite) with the men winning the Liberty League Championship Meet, while finishing second in the New York State Meet. The women set the school dual meet record (7-0) and finished second in the conference championship meet as well as at the NYS Meet. O’Brien and her assistants earned Men’s Coaching Staff of the Year by the Liberty League and Women’s Coaching Staff of the Year at the New York State Championship Meet. O’Brien was also selected as the department's Marvin Anderson Award recipient by her peers.
With an all-time, overall record of 387-183, O’Brien coached the only swimming National Champion in school history when Meghan Hartman won the 200 breaststroke at the 2004 NCAA Division III Championship Meet. Hartman is one of 18 NCAA All-Americas coach by O'Brien, including Lin, who had back-to-back fourth place finishes in the 200 fly her first two seasons, and 21 Honorable Mention All-Americans.
Within the Liberty League, RPI has had eight Swimmers of the Year and 12 Rookies of the Year, including each of the last two on the men's side, while winning a conference record 11 men’s championships. A dozen student-athletes have garnered CoSIDA National Academic All-America honors, including Lin three times and Trevor Maxfield twice. A former assistant coach for the Engineers, she has been the recipient of a dozen Coach of the Year awards.
O'Brien is a member of the CSCAA and American Swimming Coaches Association.
The Troy native was a standout at Troy High School, where she is a member of the school’s Athletics Hall of Fame. O'Brien went on to Ithaca College, where she earned a degree in Exercise Science with a minor in Coaching in 1993 while becoming an All-American swimmer for the nationally-ranked Bombers. She earned a Master's of Science in Management with a concentration in Organizational Behavior from Rensselaer in 2005.
Updated December 2020
