UK Swimming & Diving Hires Curl, Lieberman, Masterton
LEXINGTON, Ky. – In preparation for the 2020-21 University of Kentucky swimming and diving season, head coach Lars Jorgensen announced the hiring of Ethan Curl, Jordan Lieberman and Seb Masterton to the coaching staff. Just six months removed from the program documenting its best season in over a decade at both the conference and national level, the additions offer coaching experience from across the nation, combined with successful collegiate careers of their own.
The coaching staff additions are as follows:
Ethan Curl
Volunteer Assistant Coach
Ethan Curl is an alumni swimmer from the University of Indiana (2014-18) and a Lexington, Kentucky, native. He returns to his hometown after a successful swimming career at Indiana, where he served as an immediate contributor to the men’s team at the Big Ten Championships.
He was a member of two conference championship teams (2017, 2018), serving as a consistent scorer in the distance freestyle events. Curl is also a U.S. Olympic Team Trials qualifier in the 400-meter freestyle and a World Championships Trials qualifier in the 800- and 1,500-meter freestyle.
Curl earned a Bachelor of Science degree in kinesiology from Indiana, focusing on sport marketing and management. After graduation, Curl spent almost two years in corporate sales, being named an account executive in new business sales for the Miami Marlins in Miami, Florida (2018-20).
Prior to college, the Lexington native graduated from Tates Creek High School (2014). Upon graduation, he held three school records in the 200 and 500 freestyle and the 400 freestyle relay, meanwhile he was the regional record holder in the 500 freestyle. Curl is a two-time all-state second team selection (2013, 2014) and is a runner up in the 500 freestyle at the state meet (2014).
Jordan Lieberman
Assistant Coach
Jordan Lieberman joins the Kentucky swimming and diving program with six years of college coaching experience, guiding both men’s and women’s programs at Bosie State, Cornell, Texas A&M and Occidental. He has spent the last two seasons as the assistant coach at Boise State (2018-20).
In his first season at Bosie State, he helped guide the Broncos to a third-place finish at the Mountain West Championships and a fourth-place finish at the CSCAA National Invitation Championships. Lieberman assisted in the coaching of Abbey Sorensen, the Mountain West Swimming and Diving Championships Co-Swimmer of the Meet and Mountain West Swimmer of the Year. During that same meet, Bosie State recorded two individual championships and one relay championship, while 12 Broncos combined for 22 individual all-conference honors and four relay all-conference honors.
Prior to joining the coaching staff at Bosie State, Lieberman was an assistant coach for the Cornell men’s program (2016-18). During his time at Cornell, 54 performances reached the program’s all-time, top-10 charts, breaking four school records in the process. He also helped guide Cornell to its best finish at the league meet in more than eight seasons, when the program finished in fifth place in 2017. Moreover, Lieberman helped train four-time conference gold medalist and four-time All-American Alex Evdokimov.
In 2105-16, Lieberman was the volunteer assistant coach for the women’s program at Texas A&M. He helped the Aggies win the 2016 Southeastern Conference Championships and place fourth at the 2016 NCAA Championships. Lieberman worked with three 2016 Olympians, meanwhile, the team produced 12 individual All-America honors and three relay All-America honors.
He began his coaching career as an assistant coach at Occidental College (2014-15), helping produce two All-America performances. His swimmers broke two conference records and eight school records, and the team had six all-conference selections.
Lieberman is an alumni swimmer from Claremont McKenna College (2009-13) and a Princeton, New Jersey, native. He earned four All-America Honorable Mention honors in just two invitations to the national meet, meanwhile, he was a two-time CSCAA Scholar All-American, a five-time conference champion and an 11-time all-conference team selection. He helped CMC win four straight conference team titles. He graduated in 2013, earning a Bachelor of Science degree in neuroscience, then went on to earn his master’s in urban education from Loyola Marymount University (2013-15).
Seb Masterton
Graduate Assistant – Diving
Seb Masterton returns to his alma mater as one of the most accomplished divers to have come through the program, owning a school record on the 1-meter springboard that he set in 2017. The Reading, England, native is a four-time NCAA Championships qualifier (2016-19), an All-America First Team selection (2019) and a three-time All-America Honorable Mention selection (2016, 2017, 2019).
On the conference level, Masterton is a three-time SEC Championships medalist, earning silver medals on the 3-meter springboard and on platform as a freshman in 2016, and earning a bronze medal on the 3-meter springboard in 2018. Because of those performances, he is a two-time All-SEC Second Team selection (2016, 2018) and a SEC All-Freshman Team selection (2016).
Moreover, Masterton is a four-time CSCAA Scholar All-America First Team selection (2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, while making the SEC Winter Academic Honor Roll all four years at UK. He graduated from Kentucky in 2019, earning a Bachelor of Science degree in kinesiology and health promotion. Since he graduated, Masterton has been traveling the world, performing Olympic dives, comic dives, high dives and fire dives for Brown Entertainment.
For the latest on the Kentucky swimming and diving program, follow @UKSwimDive on Twitter and on Instagram, on Facebook and on the web at UKathletics.com.
