Bex Freebairn begins her third season as an assistant coach for the Washington State University Women’s Swimming program. Freebairn worked two seasons with Cougar head coach Matt Leach at Indiana State.
In her second season, Freebairn helped the 2019-20 Cougars set three school-records, record 21 Top-10 times, post their second-highest point total at the Pac-12 Conference Championships in the last 13 seasons and 10 swimmers earn a trip to the postseason CSCAA National Invitational Championships. The New Zealand native also saw four Cougars posted 2020 (2021) Olympic Qualifying Times in Lauren Burckel (USA), Mackenzie Duarte (USA), Taylor McCoy (USA) and Mia Zahab (Canada). In the classroom, eight student-athletes were named to the Pac-12 Conference Academic Winter Honor Roll while as a team, WSU earned CSCAA Scholar All-America Team Honors in the fall and capped the school year with a 3.54 Spring Team GPA, the highest semester GPA in the previous 10 years.
Freebairn helped guide the Cougars to a number of accomplishments in her first season in Pullman highlighted by the program’s first NCAA National Championship participant in sophomore Mackenzie Duarte since 2010. WSU also finished eighth at the CSCAA National Invitational Championships, ten WSU Top-10 times were posted at the Pac-12 Conference Championships and ranked second in the Pac-12 based on improvement from the year prior, according SwimSwam.com. Academically, the Cougars earned CSCAA Scholar All-America Team honors (Team GPA of 3.00+) in the fall and spring, three swimmers earned CSCCA Scholar All-American honorable mention accolades and eight earned Pac-12 All-Academic honors including a pair of first-team selections.
Prior to Washington State, Freebairn worked two seasons with Leach at Indiana State where Leach earned 2017-18 Missouri Valley Coach of the Year honors after guiding the Sycamores to a 13-win campaign and a record-setting team performance at the Missouri Valley Conference Championships. Freebairn helped ISU set school records in every event at the conference championships, highlighted by the program’s first individual conference champion. Nine Sycamores earned All-MVC honors including a trio of first-team selections. Out of the pool, Leach saw the Sycamores earn CSCAA Scholar All-American honors for the third straight semester, including the highest team GPA in the Missouri Valley Conference.
Freebairn holds past coaching and swimming experience in New Zealand where she competed nationally until her sophomore year of college where injuries forced her to stop competing.
Freebairn earned her bachelor’s of sport coaching degree while majoring in strength and conditioning from the University of Canterbury (N.Z.) in 2015. Freebairn earned her masters of coaching at Indiana State in 2018.
