MEDIA
• ESPN3 Interview (1/04/20)
Coach Marko is on Twitter
Marko Djordjevic was named the head coach of the University of California San Diego men’s and women’s swimming and diving programs on July 10, 2019. The 2021-22 will be his third season as Head Coach.
Joining the Big West in 2024-25, the Triton women won eight championship titles and made it to the podium 19 times to take second place overall. Finishing fourth overall, the Triton men set new two program records and made it to the podium four times on the final night of competition. Asia Kozan continued to dominate in her sophomore season earning a championship title each night of the four-day meet and returned to La Jolla with four first place medals and one third place medal. Kozan set four Big West meet records as well as five UC San Diego program records.
After undergoing the transition from NCAA Division II to Division I, Djordjevic made history as he was the first coach to send a scholar-athlete to an NCAA DI Championship in a non-open division sport. At the Big West Swim and Dive Championships, Chloe Braun set the UC San Diego program record and Big West meet record in the 100 breaststroke with a time of 59.14 which earned her a spot at the NCAA Championships. The junior went on to finish 20th in the nation.
During the four-year transition period, Djordjevic made history when the women’s team won the university’s first DI conference championship in 2022 at the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation swimming and diving championships. Disrupting the Hawaii dynasty, the Triton women won the championships by 12.5 points, taking home gold in seven events. After an outstanding season and championship win, Djordjevic was named MPSF Swim Coach of the Year.
Djordjevic’s success continued in the 2022-23 and 2023-24 seasons as the women continued to apply pressure at the MPSF conference finishing second and third, respectively. In those two seasons, the women’s team had 24 swimmers earn MPSF All-Conference honors. The men’s side earned 22 MPSF All-Conference honors in those two seasons as well. In 2024, senior Juli Arzave was named MPSF Swimmer of the Year after an outstanding season and conference showing. She was joined by newcomer, Asia Kozan, who was named MPSF Freshman of the Year that same season.
While the Tritons did not compete collegiately in their inaugural DI season, the swim team still made waves during the 2020-21 academic year. Djordjevic helped guide a trio of Tritons to the Wave I Olympic Trials Qualifiers in Omaha, Nebraska. Ivan Kurakin highlighted the three with a win in the 400-meter freestyle to advance to the Wave II trials.
In his first year as Head Coach, Djordjevic guided both the men's and women's teams to a number one ranking in the CSCAA polls during the 2019-20 season. At the second MPSF Championship, both teams improved from their finish in 2019. The men finished fourth while the women finished fifth at MPSF Championships. A total of 26 athletes earned All-American honors including Spencer Daily who became the first National Champion since 2014. Academically, the Tritons also saw improvement as 24 Scholar-Athletes earned MPSF All-Academic honors. This was up by nine from a season ago.
Djordjevic spent five seasons as the top assistant coach of the Triton teams, after being named to the post in July of 2014. He aided the Tritons in a volunteer capacity during the 2013-14 season, and is thus in his seventh year on the Canyonview Aquatic Center deck. Djordjevic added the title of recruiting coordinator ahead of the 2017-18 campaign, and was elevated to associate head coach in June of 2018.
Since Djordjevic's arrival, the Triton men and women both won five-consecutive titles at the Pacific Collegiate Swimming and Diving Conference (PCSC) championships. UC San Diego then successfully transitioned to the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF), made up entirely of NCAA Division I opposition, during the fall of 2018.
Also under Djordjevic's tutelage since 2013, UC San Diego has combined to post six top-seven team finishes at the NCAA Division II Championships, with most recently a sixth-place effort for the women in Indianapolis in 2019. In Djordjevic's six seasons with UC San Diego, Tritons have compiled two individual national champions, 161 All-America distinctions, 148 All-America honorable mentions, 80 PCSC individual champions, 31 PCSC relay titles, and no fewer than 63 school-record swims.
Djordjevic has prior coaching experience at San Diego club programs North Coast Aquatics and Pacific Swim, as well as having held numerous posts at the international level, primarily for his native Serbia. He is a 2007 graduate of Serbia's University of Novi Sad.
