A new division and a new conference has done little to slow down the success that Phil Davis has had with the UIW swimming and diving program.
As a first year member of NCAA Division I, the Cardinals were ineligible from national competition. However, the men jumped in to the Coastal Collegiate Swimming Association and promptly won the title in 2013-14. The following year they finished as the CCSA Runner-Ups.
Davis is in his 10th year as the women’s coach and ninth year in charge of the men’s program. Starting in 2007-08 through the conclusion of the 2012-13 season, Davis’ teams put together arguably the greatest stretch in UIW Athletics history. The men’s team finished the year ranked in the top 20 in each season and in the top 10 four seasons in a row. The women posted five consecutive top 20 seasons to close out the run. The two programs combined for seven Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference titles during the stretch that would likely have been more had he sent his top squads to the 2013 championships.
Both the men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams were awarded the College Swimming Coaches Association of America (CSCAA) Team Scholar All American award for the 2015 Spring season. The men had 18 of 28 student-athletes while the women’s had 22 of the 26 members achieve at least a 3.00 GPA.
The 2014-15 season continued the Cardinals run of success. The men earned 25 all-CCSA accolades en route to a second place finish and had four athletes notch CSCAA Scholar All-America honors. David Moore won a pair of conference titles while Nathan Coppock and Aaron Moran each had one. The women finished in fifth place and were led by Kali Lents, the CCSA Diver of the Year and Alona Kyselova, the CCSA Outstanding Freshman of the Meet. Lents swept the diving events at the conference meet while Kyselova won the 200 and 400 individual medley races.
The 2013-14 season was a memorable one for Davis and the men's program. The Cardinals made the transition from Division II to Division I a seamless one thanks to a strong senior class led by Thiago Parravicini, Andrii Nikishenko, Evandro Silva and Daniel Torres. Each had been either a Division II National Champion or runner-up and the four of them led the team to a CCSA title by edging UM-Baltimore County by 42 points. It was the eighth conference title for Davis in his eighth season in San Antonio.
The 2012-13 season was likely the best in school history with the men finishing third and the women finishing fourth in Division II. It was the best combined finish ever by the two squads. Both teams were ranked highly all season long thanks to an early season victory over perennial power Drury University.
The team used the early season momentum and kept producing outstanding results throughout the year. At the UIW Christmas Invitational both Tamiris Nascimento and Thiago Parravicini set all-time NCAA Division II records. At the national meet, Davis had four national champions and a total of 49 CSCAA All-Americans and another 37 Honorable Mention All-Americans. Nascimento capped off an incredible career with national titles in the 50 and 100-yard freestyle while Kali Lents was a surprise champion in the 3-meter springboard. On the men’s side, Mark Rubin demolished the competition in the 1,000-yard freestyle.
At this rate Davis may have to go to the Barshop Natatorium at UIW and re-think the giant display board which recognizes the All-Americans. Davis has had 23 women and 25 men earn All-America citations during his tenure. The total number of CSCAA All-America and Honorable Mention All-Americans honors is an outstanding 154 and 146, respectively. Nascimento finished her career with a school-record 24 total awards while Alex Yatsko holds the record with 17 All-America awards.
Once again, in 2011-12, Davis and the Cardinals were among the power forces in Division II swimming and diving in the NCAA. Nationally-ranked all season long, the Cardinals men finished fourth at the national championships while the women were 13th.
In 2011-12, while the Cardinals did not have a national champion, the men had 13 individuals reach All-American status while eight from the women’s team achieved that lofty level.
During Davis’ tenure at Incarnate Word his swimmers and divers have won 13 NCAA Division II national championships. The four national titles in 2012-13 was a nice way to leave NCAA Division II and head into Division I. Actually, that step is not all that significant because the Cardinals annually compete with some of the top regional Division I teams during the regular season.
It is always worth another look at the 2010-11 season because it was its own highlight reel for Davis and Incarnate Word. There were three national champions and 16 All-Americans—seven men and nine women. And, at the Division II National Championships—hosted by UIW in San Antonio and directed by Davis—the Cardinals women finished sixth while the men were 10th.
That was a year to remember. It was a time in which both Cardinals squads won their third consecutive Rocky Mountain Conference championships and Davis was named men’s coach of the year.
And for the fourth consecutive year the Cardinals came home with an individual NCAA champion—three in fact. In 2010, Conrado Chede won the 500-meter event and in the process defeated Aliaksandr Yatsko who had won that particular event the previous two years.
Three athletes upheld that national title designation in 2011. Diver Justin McDonald captured the one-meter event while Tamiris Nascimento touched first in the 100-freestyle.
And then there was Casey Hurrell-Zitelman. For Casey it was four individual events, four national titles including a Division II record time of 4:14.00 in the 400-meter individual medley. She was the female individual high-point person and she was the national swimmer of the year.
The previous year Davis was named the 2010 NCAA Division II Men’s Swimming and Diving Coach of the Year. In a vote cast from among his peers Phillip Davis garnered the highest award a collegiate coach can earn after his men’s team swam its way to second place at the national championships in March. That was a nine-step improvement over the previous year.
Davis came to Incarnate Word athletic staff as the women’s swimming coach in June of 2006. In that first year his squad increased from the remaining three swimmers from the previous season to more than one dozen. Then in the summer of 2007 under his tutelage the University initiated men’s swimming and added diving to both squads.
Davis was instrumental in moving UIW to a new alliance with the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference and Incarnate Word in February of 2009 hosted that league’s championships. Davis was named coach of the year both for men and women the first two years. With the move to Division I, Davis was crucial in securing a bid to the Coastal Collegiate Swimming Association.
Davis received an Award of Excellence from the American Swimming Coaches Association in 2009. That award comes when a coach, in this case Davis, directs a swimmer to a top eight finish at one of several USA national-level competitions.
Davis joined the Cardinals after working three years as the assistant swimming coach for both men and women at Ouachita Baptist University in Arkansas. While he was there, two OBU swimmers participated in the US Olympic trials and 26 athletes achieved All-American status.
On the women’s side, after he arrived at Ouachita Baptist in the spring of 2003, every single mark in the school’s record book was broken. Additionally, during his time at OBU twice the swimming teams had the nation’s highest cumulative grade point average
For five years, he was an instructor in the Ouachita Baptist health, physical education and recreation department. Additionally, he was an adjunct teacher in the physical education department at Henderson State University.
Three years he was the head USAS coach for the Satellite team of the Little Rock, Ark., Dolphins. Over that same time span, he coached swimming and diving at Arkadelphia, Ark., High School where his teams consistently were in the state’s top 10 and where two of his squads won state titles.
He has been president of the South Arkansas Swimming Association.
As a swimmer at Ouachita Baptist, he earned four varsity letters and was the team captain.
A native of Camden, Ark., Davis holds a bachelor’s degree in physical education from Ouachita Baptist and a master’s degree in sports administration from Henderson State.
UIW Championships Under Coach Davis
MEN CONFERENCE CHAMPIONS WOMEN CONFERENCE CHAMPIONS
2009 – RMAC 2009- RMAC
2010 – RMAC 2010 – RMAC
2011- RMAC 2011- RMAC
2012 - RMAC
2014 – CCSA
2018 – CCSA
2019- CCSA
2020 – CCSA
2022 - CCSA
MEN COACH OF THE YEAR WOMEN COACH OF THE YEAR
2009 – RMAC 2009 – RMAC
2010 – RMAC 2010 – RMAC
2011 – RMAC 2020 - CCSA
2019 – CCSA
2020 – CCSA
2022 - CCSA
NCAA MEN NATIONAL COACH OF THE YEAR
2010 – NCAA
MEN NCAA DIV 2 FINISH WOMEN NCAA DIV 2 FINISH
2008 – 17 2008 – 26
2009 – 11 2009 - 16
2010 – 2 2010 - 11
2011 – 10 2011 - 6
2012 – 4 2012 - 13
2013 – 3 2013 - 4
