A part of The College of Wooster’s swimming program every season except for one since 1995 has been Rob Harrington, first as a student-athlete, then as an assistant coach, and currently in his 21st year as head coach.

Among the highlights since Harrington became head coach in August of 2003, the Fighting Scots women’s team placed seventh at the 2004 NCAA Div. III Championships, followed the next year by the program’s third individual national championship – Elizabeth Roesch in the 1650 freestyle. More recently, Wooster came in 18th-place at the 2012 NCAA meet and tied for 27th in 2013.

In the North Coast Athletic Conference, widely regarded as the top swimming conference in Div. III, Wooster’s women have six third-place finishes during his tenure, while the men’s team logged its first top-three conference finish since 2003 at the 2003 conference meet. Also of note, Harrington has compiled career dual-meet records of 158-32 (women) and 117-70 (men). Harrington won his 250th dual meet at Wooster on January 14, 2022, and became the program's all-time winningest dual meet coach eight days later.

In 2018, Wooster's women's team placed third at the NCAC Championships for the first time since 2012, while in 2017, the men's team's fourth-place showing marked the squad's highest finish in a decade. At the 2017 and 2022 NCAC meet, Harrington was chosen by his peers as the NCAC Women's Coach of the Year, and he was selected as the NCAC Men's Coach of the Year in 2019 and 2023.

Other individual highlights during Harrington's head coaching tenure include two NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship recipients (Kayla Heising 2004, Noah Golovan 2023), 24 All-America honors, and three College Sports Communicators Academic All-Americans®.

The only year since 1995 Harrington hasn’t been part of the Wooster program was 2002-03, when he was the head coach at Wheaton (Mass.) College, also an NCAA Div. III school. At Wheaton, he led the Lyons to one of their most successful seasons in school history, as the women went 6-5, broke six team records, and finished in seventh-place at the New England Women’s and Men’s Athletic Conference Championships, while the men’s squad established 14 school records and came in sixth at the NEWMAC meet – its highest placement ever.

When Harrington was an assistant coach at Wooster (1999-02), he helped the Scot women to a 21-2 dual-meet record and two top-10 showings at the NCAA’s, while the men went 12-10 and finished as high as 11th at the national meet.

As a student-athlete (1995-99), Harrington earned four varsity letters as a specialist in the 200 butterfly and 400 individual medley, while completing work toward a bachelor’s degree in history.

Originally from Washington, D.C., and a graduate of St. Andrew’s Episcopal School near Bethesda, Maryland, Harrington also serves as Wooster’s director of aquatics.