USI announced the hiring of Cameron Kainer (KI-ner) as the head coach of the new Men's and Women's Swimming & Diving program in August of 2021. The Swimming & Diving programs started competing in 2022-23 under Kainer.
The 2025-26 season saw the Screaming Eagles rise to new heights. The women's team placed seventh for the second-straight year, but posted a new team record of five dual meet wins. The men's squad posted a program-best sixth at the Summit League Championship and tied a school record with three dual match wins.
In 2023-24, Kainer helped produce improvements to the squad that included sweeping Summit League Conference rival Eastern Illinois and fifth place finishes in the ultra-competitive A3 Performance Invitational for both squads. Kainer also helped the Eagles make improvements at the Summit League Championships as both teams finished seventh.
During the inaugural season in 2022-23, Kainer helped lead the Eagles to three dual meet victories with the programs first win coming against Valparaiso. Kainer also helped take both teams to their first Summit League Championships where both teams would have a strong showing and place eighth.
Kainer comes to USI from the University of Alaska Fairbanks where he was the head coach in 2020-21. In his only season with the Nanooks, he led Alaska Fairbanks to its first dual-meet win since 2018-19 and a 2-1 dual-meet record. The ‘Nooks also placed seventh in the Pacific Coast Swimming Conference (PCSC) Championships.
Prior to making the move to Alaska Fairbanks, Kainer served as the men’s and women’s swimming and diving head coach at his alma mater, the University of Texas Permian Basin (UTPB), from 2013 to 2020. He was an impressive 52-20 in overall in dual meets (27-11 in men’s; 25-9 in women’s).
Under Kainer’s leadership, the UTPB Falcons broke all men’s and women’s swimming records and produced 24 NCAA Division II “B-Cut” times. He also helped direct UTPB to 38 PCSC Championship “A-Cut” finalists and the 2013 conference championship.
Following UTPB’s move to the New South Intercollegiate Swim Conference, Kainer’s squad tallied 70 “A-Cut” finalists and over 120 recorded UTPB top-10 times.
Kainer began his coaching career as an assistant coach at St. Lawrence University (2010-12) and Florida Institute of Technology (2012-13), in addition to serving as the head swim coach and aquatic director at Northwood Country Club (2012) and the Nitro Swimming national development coach (2013).
The native of Leander, Texas, is a 2010 UTPB graduate with a bachelor’s degree in communications and a 2012 graduate from St. Lawrence University with a master’s degree in educational leadership. Kainer, in the pool, was a two-year UTPB captain and competed in the 500-Freestyle, 1,000-Freestyle, 1,650-Freestyle, and 400-Individual Medley. He also was president of the UTPB Student Athlete Advisory Committee.
