Wittenberg Removes Interim Title For Swimming & Diving Head Coach Gabe Rastatter
After leading Wittenberg Men’s and Women’s Swimming & Diving as an interim head coach during the 2025-26 season, Gabe Rastatter has accepted the opportunity to lead the program as its full-time head coach moving forward, Vice President and Director of Athletics and Recreation Brian Agler ’80 announced.
“Gabe took over our swimming and diving program after classes had started in September 2025,” Agler said. “In eight months our swimming and diving student-athletes competed at a high level, with the majority of them achieving personal-best times as Gabe and our program have grown together. We like the potential and direction our program is moving.”
Born and raised near Wittenberg in Springfield, Rastatter has been a swimmer for most of his life, and he has practiced and competed many times in Wittenberg’s Natatorium. He took the reins of the program from Sam Williams Benedict, who resigned in August 2025 after four years in the position.
“I’m so excited to sign on for year two! We had so much success in such a short turnaround last season, and the team and I are ready to keep that momentum going,” Rastatter said. “I must give a huge thanks to the administrative staff for supporting the team and me, my assistant coaches, Trevor Keriazes, Mandy Eby, and Nick Racketa, our training staff, and the parents for making Wittenberg Swimming & Diving as great as it is. Tiger Up!”
Rastatter, a 2014 graduate of Kenton Ridge High School in Springfield and a 2018 graduate of Ohio Northern University, has been a successful swimmer and runner in his athletic career. He continues to compete in local and national races at all distances, including the sprint, Olympic, and the Ironman. In 2022, he competed in the Indianapolis Marathon and just missed qualifying for the famed Boston Marathon with a personal-best time of 3:09.27. In November 2024, he completed the Ironman Florida (2.4-mile ocean swim, 112-mile bike, and 26.2 marathon run) in a time of 11:53.00.
As a swimmer at Kenton Ridge, Rastatter led the team to the first conference championship in school history his senior year, and he held most of the program’s records. Rastatter also swam for the Springfield YMCA club team, where he was also a record-holder and qualified for nationals both his junior and senior seasons. He was a captain on both teams.
At Ohio Northern, Rastatter was a four-year letterwinner, earned all-conference and academic all-conference awards, and was elected team captain both his junior and senior years. He specialized in sprint freestyle and butterfly throughout his competitive career. After graduating with honors from ONU with a degree in philosophy, politics, and economics (PPE) and a minor in public policy in 2018, Rastatter decided to attend law school at ONU and use his final year of eligibility.
After graduation, Rastatter passed the bar exam and worked at the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor's Office in Cleveland, then he moved back home to Springfield to work in the Clark County Prosecutor's Office. Swimming, however, has always been in his heart, along with Wittenberg.
Rastatter is related to two of Wittenberg’s greatest athletes and coaches, Roger Rossi and Bob ‘Rosy’ Rosecrans. Rossi, his great grandfather, is a 1943 graduate of Wittenberg who was a standout on the football team as a center and linebacker. He was inducted into Wittenberg’s Athletics Hall of Honor in 1998. Rosecrans, a 1958 graduate and Rastatter’s grandfather, lettered three years in football, swimming, and track and field as a student before embarking on a tremendous professional career at Wittenberg. Along with coaching football as an assistant and serving as an athletics administrator for many years, Rosencrans coached the men’s wrestling team in 1971 and 1972, the men’s swimming and diving team in 1973, and the men’s golf team from 1971-84 and 1992-95. After retiring in 1995, Rosencrans was a co-owner and vice president of Mike & Rosy’s Deli, a popular eatery located across the street from campus, and he was inducted into the Athletics Hall of Honor in 2000.
In the 2025-26 season, Rastatter guided Wittenberg to solid finishes in the extremely competitive North Coast Athletic Conference. Student-athletes on both the men's and women's teams earned academic awards under Rastatter’s direction, and several school records were broken during the season as well.
Written By: Ryan Maurer & Cindy Holbrook