Iowa
Iowa State Hires Matt Leach Away from Washington State as Head Coach
Iowa State Hires Matt Leach Away from Washington State as Head Coach
Iowa State on Wednesday announced the hiring of Matt Leach, formerly the head coach of Washington State, to the same position.
Leach is the fifth head coach in Cyclones history, replacing Duane Sorenson, who announced his retirement in March after 27 years in charge.
“I am honored to be the next Head Swimming and Diving Coach at Iowa State University,” Leach said in a university statement. “Coach Sorenson has been an absolute pillar of this program and I am thrilled to be named his successor. I want to sincerely wish him well in his retirement and hope to see him on the pool deck. I would like to thank President Wendy Wintersteen, Jamie Pollard and Calli Sanders for allowing me to lead the next generation of Cyclones,” he added. “I am humbled and extremely excited to get to work and help lead, grow, and inspire these student-athletes into the next chapter of success. Go Cyclones!”
Leach spent six seasons in Pullman. His teams produced NCAA qualifiers all five times that the meet was held during his tenure after a decade-long drought. That included a point scorer in 2024 in Emily Lundgren, just the sixth time in program history a Cougar has scored at NCAAs. His most recent team set school records, 21 top-10 times, two Pac-12 medals and scored 498.5 points, the team’s second-highest in the Pac-10/12 era.
“We are thrilled to welcome Matt, Katie, and their children, Eloise and Arlo, back to the Midwest and to our Cyclone family,” senior association director of athletics Dr. Calli Sanders said. “We believe Matt embodies the perfect blend of characteristics and experiences that we were looking for in our next head coach, bringing Power 5 head coaching experience, a commitment to the whole student-athlete, and boundless energy, to our program. His enthusiasm for joining our community and leading our swimming and diving program was undeniable throughout the entire interview process, and he has a clear vision for the future of the Cyclone Swimming & Diving program.”
Leach spent three seasons as the founding head coach of Indiana State’s women’s team, where he was the Missouri Valley Conference Coach of the Year in 2017-18. He worked for six seasons at the University of Wyoming, including four as the associate head coach. The native of Portland, Ore., was a four-time All-American swimmer at the Indiana University, graduating in 2004. He started his coaching career as a graduate assistant at LSU, then two seasons as a volunteer assistant in Baton Rouge.
What to know about Iowa State canceling gymnastics season
What to know about Iowa State canceling gymnastics season
Iowa State University announced March 3 that it is cutting its women’s gymnastics program, weeks after abruptly canceling the remainder of the season due to what athletics director Jamie Pollard said were “unreconcilable differences” in the program.
Cyclone gymnasts were informed of the decision to cut the program by ISU associate athletics director Shamaree Brown in a meeting on Tuesday morning, two people with direct knowledge of the situation told USA TODAY Sports Network.
Iowa State gymnastics head coach Ashley Miles Greig and her three assistant coaches were told that their contracts would not be renewed, the university’s news release stated. Miles Greig’s contract was set to expire after the season on June 30, 2026.
Cyclones gymnasts will have the option to remain at Iowa State to finish their degrees, or to transfer to another NCAA school to compete in gymnastics. If they stay at Iowa State, ISU will honor their scholarships. Iowa State’s release said its compliance department would work with the NCAA on waivers to help gymnasts receive an additional year of competition.
Tuesday’s announcement ended weeks of speculation about the program’s future that began when Iowa State canceled its gymnastics season on Feb. 8. In a statement at the time, Brown said the decision was because the Cyclones did not have enough athletes available to compete. In a letter to the gymnastics team and alumni on Feb. 17, Pollard wrote that the cancellation resulted from “a series of complex internal conflicts between individual teammates, coaching staff members, and parents,” language that Iowa State repeated in Tuesday’s release.
In a video released by the school, Pollard said Iowa State would take the next several months to decide which women’s sport would replace gymnastics so that the athletics department remains compliant with Title IX, a federal law that requires NCAA schools to provide proportional participation opportunities to men and women.
“I also want to say, this is not a financial decision. This is a student-athlete experience decision,” Pollard said in the video. “Adding another women’s sport will probably cost equal or more than what we’re already spending on the gymnastics program. This is about student-athlete experience.”
Pollard said that Iowa State conducted reviews of its gymnastics program in 2018 and 2023 stemming from unspecified issues. The 2023 review, conducted by an external law firm, led Iowa State to part ways with then-head coach Jay Ronayne. Miles Greig was hired in April 2023.
On Tuesday, Iowa State denied USA TODAY Sports Network’s public-records request for the findings of the university’s 2018 and 2023 gymnastics probes. In an email denying the request, Ann Lelis, a member of Iowa State’s office of general counsel, cited portions of state open records law that prevent the disclosure of personal information of students or public employees. Lelis also said the requested records were not subject to disclosure because they contained confidential attorney privileged documents.
In the video, Pollard said he asked his senior leadership team “to meet with those individuals in our department that work really closely with our gymnastics program and make a recommendation to me about what we should do going forward.”
The leadership team recommended to Pollard that the school discontinue the gymnastics program, Pollard said, and use those resources for a different women’s sport. Pollard accepted the recommendation from his staff, and he spoke with university leaders. “We are all on the same page,” he said. “This is the right decision for our athletics program and for our student-athletes.”
Cyclone gymnast Samantha Schneider, a redshirt freshman, wrote in an Instagram post on Tuesday that she was heartbroken by the decision and criticized Iowa State’s administration for deflecting blame onto the gymnasts.
“Terrible that this is the result of the lack of support from Iowa State’s Athletic Administration,” Schneider wrote. “For the last 5 months, we have come forward as a team regarding (certain) situations and environment concerns and nothing has been done to protect us as athletes on this team. The gymnasts should NOT be blamed or be sharing any part of the responsibility for this decision being made.”
A former member of this season’s coaching staff also mourned the decision in a text message to USA TODAY Sports Network on Tuesday. The person requested anonymity for fear of repercussions.
“At the end of the day this is unfair to the athletes and the alumni that have built this program and have continued to ask for better,” the coach wrote. “It appears that the department was looking for an easy way out or an easy solution, not realizing they would hurt a lot of people in the process. My only hope is that the athletes can come back stronger than ever.”
Miles Greig could not be immediately reached for comment when contacted Tuesday morning by USA TODAY Sports Network.
The Iowa State gymnastics team participated in four competitions this season before the athletics department shut down the remainder of the season on Feb. 8. Nick Joos, Iowa State’s senior associate athletic director for communications, told USA TODAY Sports Network at the time that the cancellation was due to a “combination of injuries and other health issues.”
During what ended up as Iowa State’s final meet against Denver on Feb. 1, several Cyclone gymnasts fell off the uneven bars. The Cyclones forfeited their next meet on Feb. 6 against West Virginia, with Miles Greig saying in a statement, “At this time, we do not have enough student-athletes available to safely field a team against West Virginia, and regrettably must cancel this competition.”
Two days after that, Brown met with gymnasts on Feb. 8 at Iowa State’s on-campus practice gym and informed them that their season would not continue.
Iowa State’s annual financial report submitted to the NCAA for fiscal year 2025 showed the gymnastics program generated $287,392 in total operating revenues with $1.69 million in expenses, a gap of about $1.4 million. Iowa State allotted 14 scholarships to gymnastics. Football and men’s basketball are the only Iowa State sports in which revenue exceeds spending.
Cyclone gymnastics recruits who had committed to the program for the 2026-27 season can commit to a different school or attend Iowa State and have their scholarship agreements honored.
Former Iowa State gymnast Shea Mattingly, whose last name was Anderson when she graduated in 2012, said she had been in contact with other former members of the team after Tuesday’s announcement.
“We’re all frustrated. We’re all angry,” Mattingly said. “That (Pollard) video made us all really mad, honestly. … It places all the blame on these student-athletes whereas the administration’s accountability in this, they hired these coaches that maybe it seems like they couldn’t handle the program.”
Mattingly said she and other alums aren’t giving up hope on the future of the program.
“I think we’re still going to fight,” she said. “So we’re going to send emails. We’re going to call. We’re going to do all we can, even though it seems his mind has been made up.”
Seven of the eight spots for the upcoming Class 3A Iowa High School Athletic Association Boys State Tournament were determined Monday night in substate championship action.
Advancing to the Casey’s Center in Des Moines, Iowa were ADM, Ballard, Storm Lake, Carroll, Gilbert, Pella and Solon. On Tuesday, Cedar Rapids Xavier will play Dubuque Wahlert Catholic, as that game was moved due to the Dubuque Wahlert Catholic girls competing in the girls state tournament.
The seven teams advancing were all the higher seeds, as six of the seven picked up victories on their home court. The other – Storm Lake’s 66-53 win over Sergeant Bluff-Luton – was held at nearby Buena Vista University.
ADM claimed a 30-point decision over Nevada while Ballard bested Oskaloosa, 79-45. Carroll claimed a three-point triumph vs. Sioux Center, Gilbert bested rival North Polk, 73-62, Pella eliminated Keokuk, 60-47, and Solon downed Central DeWitt, 49-44.
The state tournament bracket will be released following the conclusion of the Cedar Rapids Xavier-Dubuque Wahlert Catholic contest.
The 4A substate championships are also on deck for Tuesday evening.
Iowa State basketball coach TJ Otzelberger on prepping for Arizona
Iowa State basketball coach TJ Otzelberger on prepping for Arizona after loss to Texas Tech.
We’re heading down the homestretch.
Iowa State men’s basketball has two regular-season games left, followed by the Big 12 Tournament.
Iowa State enters the final week of the regular season with a 24-5 overall record and an 11-5 mark in Big 12 action.
The Cyclones have a NCAA Tournament resume-bolstering opportunity on Monday, March 2 with a road game against Arizona, before wrapping up the regular-season on Saturday, March 7 against Arizona State.
Plenty can still change with bracketology from now until Selection Sunday on March 15, but here is where experts are projecting Iowa State to land in the NCAA Tournament entering the final week of the regular season:
Iowa State basketball’s computer metrics as of Tuesday
Eugene Rapay covers Iowa State athletics for the Des Moines Register. Contact Eugene at erapay@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @erapay5
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