Iowa State Athletic Director Gene Smith named Duane Sorenson of Woodbury, Minnesota, as the new women’s swimming coach on June 30. He will replace Ramsey Van Horn, who was fired late this spring.

“We are pleased that Duane Sorenson is joining our staff. He is an outstanding teacher who is committed to the welfare of the student athlete,” Smith said.

Sorenson has coached the Southeast Metro Sharks Swim Club for the past 18 years, winning four state titles and finishing as state runner-up 11 times.

He is a five-time winner of the American Swimming Coaches Association’s Coach of the Year award.

He has won 12 conference championships with his Lake-Woodbury Junior High boys’ and girls’ swimming teams and has also served at Woodbury Senior High School as the girls swimming coach for five years. He won a state title in 1991, his final year there. Sorenson also won the Minnesota High School Coach of the Year award in ’91.

He also has coached at three other schools in the area for a total of eight years, accumulating four state titles.

Sorenson coached from 1977-78 at Tartan High School, then at Park High School the following three years and at Park-Woodbury Senior High the next four.

Sorenson, a Bemidji State graduate, has coached a total of 121 collegiate swimmers, 33 of which he currently coaches.