Caiming Xie Position: Head Diving Coach Alma Mater: Beijing Institute of Physical Education '85

Now in 30th year of his career as a diving coach, Caiming Xie has helped his protégés win BIG EAST titles, All-America honors and gold medals. A proven winner, Caiming's experience reaches all over the world and he is in his 13th season as head women's and men's diving coach at Notre Dame.

During his tenure, he has molded the top two divers ever to compete for the Irish - Heather Mattingly and Meghan Perry-Eaton - who combined for five BIG EAST titles, seven appearances in the NCAA Championships, and eight All-America citations. The duo also holds all six of the Notre Dame diving records, as well as four Rolfs Aquatic Center records. He also has coached the top two men's divers in school history.

For his efforts, Caiming, the first full-time diving coach in Notre Dame history, has been named his conference's top diving coach on five occasions, including in the BIG EAST in 1999, 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007. The last five seasons have been the most successful in Irish women's diving history, featuring five BIG EAST titles, five All-America honors and three BIG EAST Championships Most-Outstanding-Diver awards.

In 2006, Caiming molded two women's divers into all-BIG EAST performers in the three-meter dive as freshman Lucy Hirt was the runner up while her sophomore teammate Tara Hyer placed third in the same event at the BIG EAST Championships. For his efforts, Caiming captured his fourth BIG EAST Coach of the Year Award. From 2003-05, Perry-Eaton turned in the most impressive two-year stretch ever by an Irish diver, as she was beaten just one time during the regular season before sweeping the springboard events at the 2004 and 2005 BIG EAST Championships en route to being tabbed the meet's top diver. Perry-Eaton was the first Notre Dame diver ever to win a title at the NCAA Zone C Championships in 2004, taking first off the one-meter board. At the NCAA Championships, she delivered the highest-ever finish for a Notre Dame swimmer or diver, taking third in that event, ending up just 3.30 points behind the national champion to become an All-American. She followed up with a fifth-place finish in one-meter diving at the '05 NCAA meet.

In 2002-03, Perry-Eaton became the first Notre Dame diver - and first non-University of Miami diver since 1996 - to win a BIG EAST championship, placing first in the one-meter competition. She also was second on the three-meter board and was named the BIG EAST's top diver - her first of three consecutive diver-of-the-year awards. Perry-Eaton then qualified for the NCAA Championships, where she placed ninth in the one-meter event and 20th on the three-meter board to earn honorable mention All-America honors.

Perry-Eaton finished her career holding four of the six Notre Dame diving records: six-dive one-meter in both dual (322.64) and championship (331.58) action, as well as 11-dive, three-meter championship competition (586.43) and 10-meter platform championship action (336.60). Additionally, she boasts Rolfs Aquatic Center records in both six-dive one-meter formats (322.64 dual, 315.25 championship), as well as for dual-meet three-meter action (333.82). Her score of 309.20 in one-meter diving in 2003 en route to winning her first BIG EAST title stands as the highest since the switch to a six-dive format in championship meets in 2000-01.

Heather Mattingly was the first Irish diver to earn All-America honors, as she was a four-time honorable mention selection before being named an All-American in three-meter action in 2002 with an eighth-place finish. Mattingly was the first Notre Dame diver to qualify for the NCAA Division I Championships, and she earned bids to the meet in each of her four collegiate campaigns. Mattingly also had a great deal of success in the NCAA zone meet, taking second in one-meter action in 1999, in addition to third-place results in three-meter competition in both '99 and 2002. She still maintains two Notre Dame records: for 10 dives in a championship meet off the one-meter board (425.40) and for six-dive, three-meter action (351.15). Her score of 550.55 in winning the three-meter competition in the 2000 Notre Dame Invitational also is the best in the history of Notre Dame's home facility.

Before coming to Notre Dame, Caiming was the head diving coach for three years at Toledo, earning Mid-American Conference diving-coach-of-the-year laurels in each of his last two seasons. Prior to his stint with the Rockets, Caiming was an assistant coach for the 1991-92 season at Pittsburgh. Boasting a wealth of international experience on his résumé, Caiming served as the 1980 Chinese Olympic diving coach. He also was a technical consultant for United States Diving since 1994 and has held clinics and presentations for the United States Diving national team.

The Chinese national team coach from 1977-90, Caiming coached Sun Shu-Wei, a gold medalist in the men's platform competition at the '92 Olympics in Barcelona, Spain, and Zhu Jin-Hong, who finished fourth in the women's platform in Barcelona. Caiming's divers also have earned medals at the Asian Games, World Cup, World University Games, and World Championships.

A competitive diver in his own right, Caiming won the springboard competition at the Asian Games in 1974 and earned first place in the platform and second in the springboard competition at the National Games of China in 1975. A 1985 graduate of the Beijing Institute of Physical Education, he also won numerous Chinese diving championships. Caiming and his wife, Ping Tong, have one son, Tong, who graduated from Notre Dame in 2003 after a successful career as an Irish diver.

Head Diving Coach Caiming Xie
(574) 631-7020
Xie.2@nd.edu

Notre Dame Women's Swimming and Diving
125 Joyce Center
Notre Dame, IN 46556