Jeana Fuccillo Kempe was hired on April 27, 2022 as head coach of the Fighting Illini swimming and diving program, and enters her fifth season at the helm in 2026-27.

In 2025-26, Kempe led the squad to its first 6-0 start since the 2010-11 season, and its second consecutive top-five finish at the midseason Hawkeye Invite. At the Hawkeye Invite, senior Sara Jass set a new school record in the 200 breaststroke (2:12.90), besting a time that had previously stood for 15 years. At the Big Ten Championships, Sophia Paduano, the very first athlete in the pool for Illinois, swam a new program record in the 50 backstroke (24.68), surpassing the previous record of 24.77, which was set by Suvana Baskar at the conference meet in 2024.

Impressively, sophomores Chloe Diner and Kayla Duran swam seven new top-ten times in the 100 breaststroke, to own all ten of the event’s fastest swims in program history. In total, the Fighting Illini won 60 events, earned 48 new top-ten program marks, and set 91 new personal bests in 2026.

Her third campaign (2024-25) saw the program continue to move forward. Under her guidance the team etched 17 school records, 72 top-10 program marks and seven more ARC Pool records. Four swimmers earned NCAA B Cuts (Chloe Diner, Kayla Duran, Sara Jass, Sydney Stoll) and four divers compiled eight diving zone cuts. There were 59 event champions throughout the season and 113 personal-best marks were recorded. Four out of the five possible relay school records were set in her third season being the 200 freestyle, 400 freestyle, 200 medley and 400 medley relays.

She led Sydney Stoll to be the team's leading scorer at the Big Ten Championships with 16 points. Stoll's name is littered throughout the record book owning four individual program records, four ARC Pool records and was a part of three school record relays. She was also named Big Ten Swimmer of the week on Jan. 22, the seventh in program history and the first in six years.

Sara Jass planted her name atop the program leaderboard in the 400 IM at the Big Ten Championships with her record breaking time of 4:12.40, shattering the 16-year-old school record (4:13.85) by over a full second.

Freshmen Chloe Diner and Kayla Duran made immediate impacts as well. Duran was the team's second-highest scorer at the B1G Championships with 15 points, own's two individual program records and was a member of two school record relay teams. Diner swam the Illinois record in the 200 IM and was part of the record breaking 400 medley relay team with Stoll and Duran. Earlier in the season, Diner was named Big Ten Freshman of the Week twice on Oct. 16 and Oct. 30 to become the first two-time winner in program history and third individual overall to earn the honor.

In her sophomore campaign (2023-24) she led her squad to completely rewrite sections of the record book. She coached 12 school records, 46 top-10 program marks and seven ARC Pool records. In addition, two swimmers earned NCAA B Cuts in Suvana Baskar and Sara Jass, and five divers compiled eight diving zone cuts.

During her first season (2022-23) in the Orange and Blue she led the Illini swim and dive team to their best starting record (5-1) since the 2016 season. She coached the team to their highest point total at the Big Ten Championships (234) since the 2015-16 season and five individuals to combine for 53 points the most since that same season.

Kempe came to Illinois after one season as an assistant at South Carolina, three years at Auburn (2019-21), six seasons at LSU (2013-18) and a stop at Northern Arizona (2011-12). After joining Jeff Poppell's first staff at South Carolina a year ago, Kempe was the lead coach of the women's middle-distance swimmers and the lead women's recruiting coordinator.

A native of Lebanon, Illinois, Kempe was a five-time Illinois state champion at Belleville Althoff High School under her maiden name of Jeana Fuccillo. She won both the 100-yard breaststroke and 200-yard individual medley in 2001 and 2002, and the 200-yard individual medley in 2003. In high school, she was the 2002 Illinois High School Swimmer of the Year, an eight-time high school All-American, and a three-time Junior National Champion (200 Breast, 200 Fly, 200 Back). Kempe was also a member of the U.S. National Junior Team that competed in Barcelona, Spain, an Olympic Trials qualifier in 2000 and 2004, and a U.S. National Finalist.

Following high school, Kempe swam collegiately at the University of California-Los Angeles. While competing for UCLA, she was a team captain and a PAC-10 Championship finalist, earned four letters and helped the Bruins to a pair of second-place finishes in the PAC-12 Conference. She was a three-time top-eight finisher as an individual at the PAC-12 Championships. Kempe earned her bachelor's degree in sociology from UCLA in 2007 and then completed her master of arts in education psychology and human relations from Northern Arizona in 2009. She worked as an academic graduate assistant in the NAU athletics department while pursuing her master's. In Flagstaff, Kempe gained coaching experience working with the Flagstaff Peaks Aquatic Club.

Prior to her time at South Carolina, Kempe spent three seasons as an assistant at Auburn where she worked primarily with the middle-distance men and women. In 2019, she helped lead Auburn's women's team to a 15th-place finish at the NCAA Championship, its highest team finish in seven years. All five of Auburn's women's relays scored points at the NCAA Championships as well as earning All-America honors that season. While at Auburn, she was instrumental in the development of one SEC champion in the 200 freestyle, two All-Americans in the 200 backstroke, and a new program record-holder in the 200 breaststroke. In total, Kempe helped the Tigers register 11 individual All-American performances.

During her six years in Baton Rouge, Kempe served as an assistant coach for LSU before being promoted to the associate head women's coach her final year with the program. While with the Tigers, Kempe worked with the middle-distance stroke groups. From 2012-14, her student-athletes broke 10 school records and 11 swimmers qualified for the NCAA Championships. Kempe helped lead LSU's women to its highest finish at the SEC Championships when it took fifth in 2015. The program also sent a program-record 11 swimmers and divers to the NCAA Championships in back-to-back years during her tenure.

In two seasons as an assistant at NAU, Kempe led swimmers to 14 NCAA 'B' cuts and 14 school records. In addition, her swimmers registered 28 program all-time top-five swims. NAU posted two top-three finishes at the WAC Championships with Kempe as an assistant coach, including a second-place finish in 2012. Four NAU swimmers were named CollegeSwimming.com Mid-Major All-Americans during the 2011-12 season and swimmers won five individual titles during the 2012 WAC Championships.

Kempe also participated in the USA Swimming Women's Leadership Summit and National Team Camps in 2015 and 2017. She earned her bachelors in sociology from UCLA in 2007 and then completed her master of arts in education psychology and human relations from Northern Arizona in 2009.

Kempe is married to Andrew, and the couple have two daughters, Avery and Annabeth.

Name	Title	@illinois.edu
Jeana Kempe	Head Coach	jkempe
Tricia Grant	Head Diving Coach	tngrant
Zach Closson	Assistant Coach
Jerod Simek	Director of Operations	jsimek

Name	Title	@illinois.edu
Anne Danbury	Assistant Athletic Trainer	schafsm2
Ryan Armstrong	Assistant Strength & Conditioning Coach	ryan65

Upcoming Events

Results

Completed Event: Swimming & Diving versus CSCAA Championships on March 14, 2026 , , 7th of 46, 330 pts.

Completed Event: Swimming & Diving versus CSCAA Championships on March 13, 2026 , , 7th of 46, 223 pts.

Completed Event: Swimming & Diving versus CSCAA Championships on March 12, 2026 , , 7th of 46, 122 pts.

Completed Event: Swimming & Diving versus NCAA Diving Zones on March 11, 2026 ,

Completed Event: Swimming & Diving versus NCAA Diving Zones on March 10, 2026 ,

2026-27 Swimming & Diving Staff

Coaching Staff

Support Staff

Promotional Background Photo

Footer