Kristy Jones enters her third season as the Director of Swimming & Diving at the College of the Holy Cross in 2024-25.
In her first season as leader of the program the Crusaders earned 82 lifetime swimming bests broke 15 team records, set 15 diving personal records and had one diver, Abby Bryant qualify for the NCAA Zone Diving Championship. Charlie Nascimben and Chris Clow swept Patriot League Swimming & Diving weekly awards for the first time since the 2006-07 campaign. On the women's side Greta Walting became the first Crusader to be named the Patriot League Female Swimmer of the Week since the 2010-11 season and only the second student-athlete in program history to earn conference honors twice in a single season.
Spending six years as head coach at Babson College in Wellesley, Mass., Jones’ team saw considerable success in both the pool and in the classroom, with her swimmers and divers breaking 43 school records and earning numerous Scholar All-America accolades each semester. Jones was instrumental in recruitment efforts for both the Beavers men’s and women’s programs, expanding the teams' roster from 20 student-athletes to 53, with athletes hailing from 15 different states and eight different countries.
Jones guided the men’s team at Babson to its most dual-meet wins since 2002 (10) in 2017-18 and 2019-20, while placing fourth at the NEWMAC Championships in 2018-19. Coaching the women, Jones set the program record in dual-meet wins (10) in 2019-20 while recording a program-best 343.5 points at the NEWMAC Championship. Outside of the pool, Jones managed the Athletic Tutoring Program by interviewing, hiring, and managing 25 students to peer tutor Babson student-athletes.
Before Babson, Jones spent two years as an assistant coach at WPI from 2014-16, and was responsible for day-to-day training sessions and strength and conditioning workouts while assisting with fundraising and recruiting efforts for teams that set 47 school records. Prior to WPI, Jones was a six-year assistant at Brown from 2007-13 and led the planning and execution of workouts, fundraising, and recruitment efforts, and also was involved in the institution's faculty liaison program and the team's mentoring initiative.
Currently a Worcester resident, Jones was a standout four-year member of the swimming & diving squad at Indiana. A team captain for the Hoosiers during her senior season, Jones qualified for the NCAA Championships in the 200 and 400-yard individual medley in 2002 and 2003. She earned All-America Honorable Mention honors in 2002 and was an Olympic Trials qualifier.
