Michael “Mickey” Wender was named as the Colorado Mesa University Head Coach for the Swimming & Diving team in July of 2019 and has since taken the program to unprecedented levels of success.
They have swept the ten Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference men’s and women’s team titles in all five of his previous seasons and have steadily been moving up the national ladder, taking a program-best second (women’s) and fifth (men’s) at the 2024 NCAA Division II Championships.
Wender was named as the College Swimming & Diving Coaches Association NCAA Division II Women’s Swim Coach of the Year in 2024 after his women’s swimmers won seven events at the national championships in Geneva, Ohio.
He also coached 2-time National Men’s Swimmer of the Year Ben Sampson to six national titles over the previous two seasons, guiding the self-described average high school swimmer all the way to the 2024 U.S. Olympic Trials, just one example of Wender’s incredible swimming development and motivational skills.
Wender has also been named as the RMAC Coach of the Year four times.
In his five previous seasons with the Mavericks, his swimmers and divers have combined to win 286 CSCAA All-America honors and 157 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference titles. Included in that total are 41 RMAC relay wins, a testament to the depth and domination of the Maverick program, that is also undefeated in duals against fellow RMAC and NCAA Division II squads.
The Mavericks have also claimed meet wins over several Division I programs, including their first ever against a Power-5 opponent in BYU (women) last year.
Wender's athletes have also shined in the classroom as his programs have been honored as a Scholar All-America Team by the CSCAA a combined 19 times in 20 such semi-annual opportunities. They Mavericks have also led or co-led all NCAA Division II programs in CSCAA Scholar All-America honorees in each of the past two years and have combined for national-leading 25 College Sports Communicators (formerly known as CoSIDA) Academic All-America awards in the previous five years.
They have also routinely being recognized for their high GPAs, excellence in community service and team spirit.
Wender has racked up nearly 500 dual meet wins in his more than 32 previous years as a collegiate head coach. Prior to coming to CMU, Wender had served at Division I Army West Point, where he coached the Black Knights from 2006-19. He had also been the head coach at the University of Washington from 1998-2006 after a 1992-98 stint at the University of California, Santa Cruz from 1992-98. Additionally, Wender served as the head coach for American Samoa at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China.
He began his collegiate coaching career at Cal State University Northridge, where he assisted NCAA Coach of the Decade Pete Accardy from 1990-92 after serving as the coach at Sachem (N.Y.) High School the previous year.
Wender has developed swimmers to qualify for NCAA Division I and II Championship meets in every event and was named as the Patriot League Swimming Coach of the Year three times at Army West Point, most recently in 2017. His swimmers have broken all of the existing school records at every previous school he coached.
He has also produced several swimmers who ranked in the Top 100 in the world and has coached swimmers at every U.S. Olympic Trials since 2000, including three Mavericks in Lily Borgenheimer (2020/21), Sampson (2024) and current Maverick senior and team captain Andrew Scoggin (2024).
Wender also served on the Board of Directors for the CSCAA from 2003-06 and was the President of the Greater Seattle USA Swim Coaches Association from 2002-04 and has spearheaded fundraising campaigns that have raised more than $2 million in total to support and enhance the programs at his previous institutions.
A personal triathlon enthusiast, he completed two Ironman (1993, 1994) and was a Top 10 finisher in the 1996 Eco-challenge, known as the World's Toughest Athletic Event. He was originally hired at CMU in a dual role as the head swimming/diving & triathlon coach and led the Maverick triathlon team to a regional title and fourth place national finish in 2019 before the 2020 fall season was canceled due to COVID. He also began the 2022 season in charge of the Maverick triathlon program during a transition period of two other Maverick coaches, laying the groundwork for yet another regional title and eventual second place national finish.
He is a 1989 physical education graduate from the University of Vermont and obtained a master's degree from CSUN in 1995.
Wender and his wife Kate have been married for more than 27 years and are the parents of four children— Samantha, twin brothers Jack & Luke and Grace.
