Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s John Benedick & Wheaton College’s Jon Lederhouse Among 2025 College Swimming & Diving Coaches Association of America Division III Hall of Fame Inductees

BRIDGEPORT, Pa. — Former Wheaton College (Ill.) swimming & diving/water polo coach Jon Lederhouse and Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) Hall of Fame member/former league President John Benedick of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) are among 19 coaches/athletes selected to the 2025 College Swimming & Diving Coaches Association of America (CSCAA) Division III Hall of Fame.

The Class of 2025 will mark the second group of inductees into the CSCAA Division III Hall of Fame. The induction ceremony will take place on May 5, 2025, at the CSCAA Annual Awards Celebration at the Raleigh Marriott Crabtree Valley in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Benedick and Lederhouse join 2024 inductee/former Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges head coach Mike Sutton as water polo coaches who made the CSCAA Hall of Fame for excelling in administering water polo, swimming and diving.

Samantha Barany, Executive Director of the CSCAA, highlighted the importance of this honor: “This Hall of Fame celebrates the extraordinary careers of swimmers, divers, and coaches who have left a lasting legacy in Division III collegiate swimming and diving. These inductees are being celebrated not only for their athletic excellence but also for their enduring contributions to the sport, their teams, and their institutions.”

Barany also expressed her appreciation for the Division III Hall of Fame Committee – Keith Beckett, Nancy Bigelow, Bob Pearson, John Patnott, Sutton, Teresa Fish, Brad Shively, Sutton and Lederhouse – noting, “I am deeply grateful for the committee’s dedication. They are each committed to this important recognition, ensuring we continue to be inspired by the great people who have paved the way for us all. We look forward to celebrating this inspiring group at our Annual Awards Celebration in May.”

John Benedick – Massachusetts Institute of Technology

A 2011 inductee to the CWPA Hall of Fame, John Benedick of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology excelled as a coach, administrator and league president during a 40+ year tenure at MIT.

Benedick coached the Engineers men’s water polo program from 1975-to-1996.  During his tenure on the bench, he tallied an overall record of 158-263-2 to rank as the all-time wins leader in the history of the sport at MIT.

The coach of 10 Association of Collegiate Water Polo Coaches (ACWPC) All-America selections and 15 All-New England picks, he captured the 1991 CWPA Division III Eastern Championship and reached the Division III Eastern title game three-times (1991, 1994, 1996).

MIT’s swimming & diving coach along with his duties as water polo coach, he helped 50 of his athletes earn All-America honors, produced numerous conference champions, and developed three national champions in swimming.

His MIT swimming teams earned dual meet records of 62-81 for the women and 83-80 for the men during his tenure.  The Engineers’ men’s teams earned National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division III Championship Top 10 finishes in both 1982 and 1984.

He developed three National Champions during his tenure as a swimming and diving coach. The 2019 CSCAA Ben Franklin Award recipient presented to “pioneering individuals or organizations whose efforts and innovations best promote the integrity and enhancement of the student-athlete ideal,” he was twice honored as the Coach of the Year from the New England Intercollegiate Swimming Association (NEISA) and coached numerous conference champions.

He served MIT for 44 years with the first 22 as both head swimming and diving and water polo head coach (1975-to-1997) prior to completing the final 22 (1997-to-2019) as an Athletics Administrator overseeing the development of operational processes and procedures for the institution’s 33 varsity sports.  He retired as Senior Associate Director of Athletics at MIT in 2019.

He was instrumental in the planning of MIT’s current facility, the Zesiger Center, visiting over 20 top facilities to draw ideas and provide feedback as to what the institution needed in an aquatics and recreation facility.

A past President of both the CWPA and NEISA, Benedick was also the secretary treasurer for the New England Water Polo Association, served on the NCAA Rules Committee for water polo and was a member of Women and Minorities Strategic Alliance Grant Committee for the NCAA. In addition, he served on numerous athletic department review committees for NCAA institutions.

An All-America swimmer and water polo athlete at California State University at Hayward (now Cal State East Bay), the 1973 graduate with a Bachelor of Science in Physical Education completed a Master’s degree from the University of California, Berkeley in motor learning and sport sociology

A 2022 inductee into the Cal State East Bay Athletics Hall of Fame, Benedick was a four-time All-America in five events at Hayward.  He swam on a national runner-up 400 freestyle Relay team and garnered individual runner-up finishes in both the 50 yard freestyle and 100 yard breaststroke at the NCAA Championship.

Jon Lederhouse – Wheaton College (Ill.)

Wheaton College’s head men’s swimming coach for 41 seasons (1977-to-2017), Jon Lederhouse led the institution to 49 College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin (CCIW) Championships (25 women and 24 men). Additionally, he coached the women’s team – which he took over in 1981 and led for 37 seasons – to four Chicago Metro Conference championships prior to the CCIW adding women’s swimming as a conference sport.

The NCAA Division III Women’s Swimming Co-Coach of the Year in 2000, Lederhouse’s women’s teams scored points at the NCAA Championships 33 times, including 10 top-10 finishes. His 2000 women’s squad finished fifth at Nationals. Four women won a total of 11 NCAA Division III individual championships in his lengthy tenure.

Lederhouse’s men’s programs finished in the top-10 at the NCAA Division III Championships 11 times, including a third-place finish in 1990 and a fourth-place effort in 1991. Wheaton won five individual NCAA men’s swimming Championships from three of Lederhouse’s swimmers. Under his guidance the program scored points 34 times at the NCAA Division III Men’s Swimming Championships.

He added duties as head women’s water polo coach in 2002 when the institution added the sport.  He guided the team until its elimination prior to the 2013 season, including a three-year tenure in the CWPA Division III ranks when the Thunder placed third (2010 at Utica College, 2011 at Macalester College) and fourth (2012 at Grove City College) at the league’s first three Division III Championships.

A 1974 graduate of Wheaton, Lederhouse was an All-America swimmer at Wheaton winning the 1971 and 1972 NCAA Division II 100-yard backstroke championships and qualifying both seasons for the NCAA Division I National Championships in that event. He was an NCAA All-America in the 200 individual medley (1972-74), 200 backstroke (1971-74), and 100 backstroke (1971-74).

Lederhouse once held CCIW records and won CCIW titles in seven events: 50 freestyle (1971, 1974), 100 freestyle (1972, 1974), 200 freestyle (1972), 100 butterfly (1973), 200 butterfly (1973), 400 individual medley (1971), and 100 backstroke (1971 and 1974).

He also won Illinois Private College championships in the 100 and 200 backstroke and 200 and 400 individual medley, and held Illinois Small College State records and/or Wheaton varsity records in eleven events: 50, 100, 200, 500, and 1000 freestyle; 100 and 200 butterfly; 100 and 200 backstroke; and 200 and 400 individual medley.

For his service, Wheaton renamed the pool he helped design in 1981 as the Jonathan Lederhouse Natatorium in 2018.