Antony Romanini joined the Harvard Women's Swimming and Diving program as an assistant coach in Sept. 2024. The 2026-27 campaign marks his third with the Crimson.
A former collegiate swimmer, Romanini brings a diverse background with him to Cambridge, having been an assistant and head coach at the NCAA level, while also having coached athletes across a wide age group.
In Romanini's first season, Harvard completed the 2024-25 campaign with a perfect 10-0 dual-meet record, which included a sweep of the annual HYP meet. The Crimson's 10-0 record was its first since 2006, while its Ivy dual-meet title -- as a result of its 7-0 performance -- was its first since 2015. The HYP win, meanwhile, marked the program's first since 2014. Harvard fell short of its goal of winning the Ivy League crown, finishing in second place, but won nine events, with Alexandra Bastone taking home Co-High Point Swimmer of the Meet honors. Bastone, along with Nina Janmyr and Remi Edvalson, later earned NCAA Championship berths, securing the program's 13th straight season of appearing at the national meet.
In 2025-26, Harvard completed its dual-meet season with a 9-1 mark, giving it back-to-back seasons with at least nine victories. The last time the Crimson accomplished the feat was in 2004-05 and 2005-06. Harvard finished in third place at the Ivy League meet, but took home the conference's Career High Point Swimmer (Anya Mostek) and Career High Point Diver Awards (Janmyr). Mostek and Janmyr were part of a quartet that represented Harvard at the NCAA Championships, with Bastone and Sydney Lu joining them. The Crimson's four NCAA qualifiers marked the program's most since 2019. Mostek, Janmyr and Lu, meanwhile, all earned Academic All-America honors, giving Harvard a program-best three in one season and surpassing the previous best of two in 1987. They were also the Crimson's first Academic All-Americans since 2000.
Prior to working in sports production for five years at Penn State and locally with the Boston Red Sox and Boston Celtics, Romanini served as a swimming coach at the State College Area YMCA from Oct. 2019-March 2022. While in “Happy Valley,” Romanini was responsible for the daily planning and implementation of a year-round program for 100 youth swimmers ranging from 4-18 years old. He also ran daily practices for the senior age group/national team and led the YMCA’s learn-to-swim program that featured 200 local youth.
Romanini began his coaching career in Dec. 2015, at Division-II Alderson Broaddus University where he was an assistant coach before being elevated to interim head coach. In his role, he developed a weight strength program for the Battler sprint and middle-distance groups, and created a medicine-ball program for the distance swimmers. He also managed the program’s equipment and travel budget, and scholarship distribution.
A three-year team captain for the Edinboro University swim team, Romanini enjoyed a well-rounded experience in his five years in Edinboro, Pennsylvania. In addition to his contributions in the pool, Romanini served on the Student Athlete Advisory Committee for three years, a tenure that featured him as president and Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference co-chair. During his time as SAAC president, Romanini led fundraising efforts for the Make-A-Wish Foundation, with Edinboro ranking in the top five nationally all three years and No. 1 in his final year. Romanini also caught a glimpse into athletic administration as an intern for Edinboro Athletics. That experience exposed him multiple areas of an athletics department such as marketing, business development, compliance, strength and conditioning, and sport program management.
