ST. BONAVENTURE, N.Y. – Bonnies men's and women's swim and dive head coach Alec Kandt has completed his coaching staff for the 2026-27 season, announcing Colby Clark as assistant coach and Kongrong Li as diving coach.

Clark joins the Bonnies swimming and diving program with 10 years of coaching experience at the club, high school and collegiate levels.

"I'm very excited to welcome Colby to the St. Bonaventure Swimming and Diving family. Colby comes with an impressive resume and extensive experience at the club and college coaching level," Kandt said. "I believe he will make our team stronger because of his energy and perspective."

He most recently served on staff at Utah Tech for the past three years, working primarily with mid-distance and distance athletes. While there, he coached swimmers to eight individual school records and multiple finalist finishes at the WAC and MPSF Championships.

Clark began his coaching career with Cedar Swim Club in 2016 as an assistant coach before becoming the head men's swimming coach at Cedar City High School from 2018-2020. He returned to Cedar Swim Club as head coach from 2021-2023, where he developed five swimmers who went on to win a combined eight individual state championships at the high school level. In 2023, Colby transitioned to collegiate coaching, joining Utah Tech while also working with Southern Utah Swimming Association.

The Utah native earned his bachelor's degree in political science from Southern Utah University, where he was named to the Dean's List each year, and is completing a master's degree in Sports Conditioning and Performance. He was also a collegiate swimmer at Adams State University in Colorado, where he competed as a distance swimmer.

Li, who goes by the nickname KR, brings an impressive background to working with Bonnies divers.

The California native most recently worked at James Madison, where he worked with the 2024 and 2025 Sun Belt Conference women's champions. He was named Coastal Collegiate Sports Association (CCSA) Diving Coach of the Year in 2023 during his tenure at JMU as well. Li also has prior experience at Miami (OH), Illinois and time spent with USA Diving.

"I believe KR is a huge asset to this program," Kandt said. "His resume speaks for itself, and he clearly brings an immense amount of knowledge to the St Bonaventure swimming and diving team. We are very excited to have him as the leader of our dive program."

Li spent 13 years at Miami (OH) as the head diving coach for both the men's and women's programs. During his time in Ohio, the RedHawks saw individual success at both the national and conference level. At the national level, Miami (OH) had seven All-American selections and three second place finishes at the NCAA National Championships. His divers also won 10 MAC Diver of the Year awards and he was named the MAC Diving Coach of the Year in four separate seasons.

He has logged nearly three decades of international coaching experience. He worked as USA Diving Junior Head Coach consultant, assigning coaches with training plans and programs, and was the assistant team leader for Team USA at the 2014 FINA Diving World Cup and team leader in 2018.

His international coaching work also includes serving as co-head coach of the US Elite Diving Academy from 2001-07 and head coach of Team USA at the 2004 Junior World Championships. Before working with Team USA, he spent six years (1996-2001) as the diving coach at Australia Institute of Sports, the country's elite diving program. While working at AIS, he coached seven Olympians including Matthew Mitcham who won gold at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
 
Li's coaching career began with the Nanning Diving Team in Guanxi, China where he served as the head coach from 1990-95.

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