Mark is in his eigth season with Northwest Arkansas Aquatics. He brings 29 years of coaching experience to NWAA, having coached swimmers of all ages and abilities from 8 & Under to Olympic Trials qualifiers. Mark graduated from Oakland University where he was a member of three consecutive NCAA Division II National Championship teams.

As a collegiate swimmer at Oakland University, Mark was a 16-time NCAA Division II All-American and the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Swimmer of the Year in 1996. Mark also qualified for the USA Swimming National Championships and represented the Oakland Live Y’ers at that meet in the spring of 1998.

During his time with NWAA, the Sharks have achieved USA Swimming Bronze Medal Club status in the Club Excellence Program for the 2019-2020, 2020-2021, and 2024-2025 seasons. For both the 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 seasons, Mark was named to the USA Swimming National Junior Team coaching staff. Additionally, NWAA recently became a USA Swimming Safe Sport Recognized program under his leadership.

Mark led the Sharks to victory during the 2021, 2023, 2024, and 2025 Arkansas Swimming Long Course Combined Team Championship which were the first for the program since 2007. In 2025, NWAA won the Combined Team Championships at both the Age Group and Senior Short Course Championship meets for the first time in program history. Additional accomplishments under Mark’s leadership include:

• Over 150 broken program records in the 10&U, 11-12, 13-14, 15-16, and Open categories
• Athlete participation in the USA Swimming Olympic Trials, US Open Championships, FINA World Marathon Swim Series, USA Swimming Open Water National and Junior National Championships, USA Swimming Junior National Championships, NCSA Junior National Championships, USA Swimming Futures Championships and the Region VIII Sectional Championships

Mark is a mentor for NWAA swimmers as they pursue swimming at the collegiate level. Graduates from NWAA over the last four years are now representing both NCAA Division I and Division II programs. Three NWAA graduates have competed at the NCAA Division I National Championships and one recently earned the first NCAA Division II All-American honors this past year.

In addition to being the NWAA Head Coach, Mark is also the volunteer assistant coach for the Bentonville High School Boys and Girls swim programs. 

Before joining NWAA, Mark coached at the NCAA Division II level for 18 years (Wayne State University, Truman State University, and William Jewell College). As the head coach of Truman State University, he led the Women to two NCAA Division II National Championships in 2006 and 2008. In those seasons, his peers voted Mark as the CSCAA Coach of the Year. Mark also coached 9 years at the USA Swimming level for the Rockford Riptide and Oakland Live Y’ers.

Mark and his wife Emily reside in Cave Springs. Both of their children, Emma (13) and Mason (11) swim for NWAA.

Mary-Catherine Ivey joined NWAA in Fall of 2025 with more than 19 years of coaching experience across all levels of the sport, from developmental swimmers to Olympic Trials qualifiers.

She began her coaching career in 2005 while in college with her former club team, Aiken-Augusta Swim League (Silver Medal Club 2011-2013 & Bronze 2010 & 2015) where she served as Aiken Site Director, National Team Assistant Coach, and Swim School Coordinator. In 2015, she moved to Kansas to join the Kansas City Blazers, coaching both Age Group and National Team athletes while also managing the team’s dryland, website and social media.

Most recently, Mary-Catherine coached in Wichita beginning in the fall of 2022 as a lead coach for a high performance age group. There, she led training design and on-deck coaching for athletes ages 11–14, blending long-term development with high-performance goals. She utilized progression-based training cycles and seasonal data analysis to assess athlete growth and ensure consistency across seasons, allowing swimmers to compete successfully at the local (Missouri Valley Swimming), regional (Central Zones), and sectional (Region VIII) levels. In the 2024–2025 season, she led the 11–12 girls to the team high-point award at the Missouri Valley Age Group Championships and the 13–14 girls to the same honor at the Long Course Championships. Her 11–12 girls also broke a Missouri Valley relay record that stood for more than 30 years.

Mary-Catherine served as a Georgia Swimming Zones Coach (2014) and Missouri Valley Zones Coach (2019 and 2025), helping lead and mentor top regional age-group athletes in elite competition. Beyond performance results, she prioritizes helping swimmers understand and apply goal-setting principles to enhance their performance both in and out of the pool.

She holds a B.S. in Exercise and Sports Science with a minor in Business from the University of South Carolina and is a certified yoga instructor (RYT 200). Her coaching philosophy blends technical precision with functional movement, emphasizing mobility, body awareness, and strength training inspired by her studies in Movement Culture.

Originally from South Carolina, Mary-Catherine now calls Bentonville home. Outside of coaching, she enjoys practicing yoga, watching soccer and football and spending time outdoors with her rescue Husky-Shepherd, Finley, and her cat, Roo.

Coach Trey enters his seventh season with Northwest Arkansas Aquatics, bringing over 10 years of coaching experience and a passion for developing swimmers of all ages and abilities.

A graduate of William Jewell College, Trey swam under NWAA Head Coach Mark Gole, setting multiple pool records—including the program mark in the 200-yard breaststroke—and earning consistent points at the Great Lakes Valley Conference Championships.

Since joining NWAA, Trey has been instrumental in the team’s success, helping the Sharks earn USA Swimming Bronze Medal Club recognition and capture multiple Arkansas Long Course and Age Group Championship titles. His athletes have gone on to compete at Zone, NCSA, and Junior National Championships, as well as USA Swimming Select Camps.

Trey was named the 2022 Arkansas Age Group Coach of the Year and has served as an Arkansas Zone Team Coach in both 2023 and 2024. He also supports the local swimming community as a volunteer assistant coach for the Bentonville West High School swim teams.

Outside the pool, Trey enjoys golfing, fishing, building Legos, and exploring new restaurants around Northwest Arkansas.