After being introduced as Harvard’s diving coach in May of 2019, Matt O’Neill enters his seventh season as coach of the men's and women’s diving program in 2025-26.
Last season, O'Neill brought seven women's divers (Ennika Carlson, Tabitha Chen-Fiske, Remi Edvalson, Samantha Holtz, Nina Janmyr, Elizabeth Miclau, Amy Wotovich) and three on the men's side (Jack Holland, Will Sullivan, Raphael Tourette) to the NCAA Zone A Diving Championships, with Edvalson (platform) and Janmyr (1-meter) securing NCAA Championship berths.
In 2023-24, O'Neill helped three women's divers (Edvalson, Janmyr, Wotovich) reach the NCAA Championships. Edvalson was a qualifier in 1-meter and platform diving, with Janmyr and Wotovich competing at 1- and 3-meters, respectively. Janmyr was also the Ivy League champion on both boards. The women's trio was part of a quartet that competed at the NCAA Zone A Diving Championships. On the men's side, meanwhile, Adam Wesson earned an NCAA berth in the 1- and 3-meter competitions, and was one of five Crimson divers to appear at the zone meet.
In his fourth season in Cambridge, O'Neill oversaw a women's diving program that sent three athletes to the 2023 NCAA Championships in Edvalson (platform), Janmyr (1-, 3-meter) and Elizabeth Miclau (platform). This all occurred after the Crimson qualified seven divers for the NCAA Zone A Diving Championships. Edvalson (1-meter) and Miclau (3-meter), meanwhile, were All-Ivy League Second-Team selections.
On the men's side, O'Neill helped Wesson reach the 2023 NCAA Championships for the second consecutive year. Prior to Wesson performing on national stage, Wesson was one of five Harvard divers to compete at the NCAA Zone A Diving Championships. While in Morgantown, West Virginia, O'Neill guided Wesson, who garnered All-Ivy Second-Team accolades, to a runner-up performance in the 1-meter event and a fourth-place effort on the three-meter board, both of which punched his NCAA ticket.
O’Neill guided the Crimson to a banner year in diving in 2021-22. On the women’s side, the Crimson took the top four spots in the 1-meter while claiming the top four spots and six of the top eight positions in the 3-meter event at the Ivy League Championships. Katie Laverty ’25 won the 1-meter event while Miclau captured the 3-meter event. Georgina Milne ’22 won the Ron Keenhold Career High Point Diver Award for cumulative points over four years with Laverty capturing the Rick Gilbert Award as the High Point Diver of the Meet. Eight Crimson qualified for the NCAA Zone Diving Championships before Miclau advanced to the NCAA Championships.
On the men’s side in 2021-22, all four divers qualified for the NCAA Zone Diving Championships. At Zones, Wesson placed second in the 3-meter event and sixth in the 1-meter competition to advance to the NCAA Championships. Wesson proceeded to earn Second-Team CSCAA All-America honors, finishing 16th in the nation in the 1-meter event.
Under his guidance in 2019-20, Crimson divers saw remarkable success on the boards. For the first time since 2016 Harvard won both the 1- and 3-meter events at the 2020 Ivy League Championships. Morgane Herculano won the 1-meter competition posting a score of 292.50 after finishing fifth the year prior. Milne earned her first event title of her career and earned a spot at the NCAA Championships, capturing the 3-meter dive with a score of 323.50. Milne was joined in the top-five along with Esther Lawrence (309.70), who also qualified for the national meet, and Miclau (308.00). Additionally, Miclau qualified for the national meet on platform with a second-place finish at the NCAA Zone Championships.
The Crimson men also saw similar success in 2019-20. On the 1-meter board a pair of divers placed on the podium at the 2020 Ivy League Championship Meet. Alec DeCaprio finished fifth with a NCAA Zone qualifying score of 320.25, while Austin Fields qualified for the zone championships with a score of 282.55 to place eighth. First-year diver Moritz Pail was second in the consolation finals of the 1-meter posting a score of 282.90. Luke Foster represented the Crimson in the 3-meter finals and placed eighth with an NCAA Zone Qualifying score of 305.85. Fields finished second in the consolation finals on the 3-meter board with an NCAA Zone qualifying score of 328.20.
The Crimson did not compete during the 2020-21 season due to COVID-19.
O'Neill joined the Crimson after a three-and-a-half-year tenure with American Flyers Diving and Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio.
O'Neill led American Flyers Diving to a fifth-place overall finish, including a victory for the boys’ team, at the 2018 USA Diving Junior National Championship, including a pair of individual national champions. Over his four years with the club, he coached three different national champions. He was also the head coach at Case Western Reserve from 2015-19, where he mentored one All-American and University Athletic Association Diver of the Year.
O'Neill was a four-year varsity diver at West Virginia and was the program record holder in the one-meter and three-meter springboards until 2017. He received his bachelor's degree from West Virginia in 2013 in Athletic Coaching Education.
