Coaching Staff - Swimming

Zoryanna (Zory) Matlashewski
Assistant Swim Coach
Email: [email protected]

This is Zory’s first year coaching at Armstrong. Zory started swimming competitively at 7 years old. Throughout high school, she swam for Edina Swim Club then continued her swimming career at Trinity College where she studied biomedical engineering. She was a distance swimmer and her favorite events consisted of the 400 IM and the 1650, but loved competing the 200 IM during in-season dual meets.

Outside of coaching, Zory works as an engineer focusing on medical devices. She also is an assistant choreographer and dancer at Cheremosh Ukrainian Dance Ensemble. She enjoys teaching her dance students and is thrilled to continue working with athletes by transition into coaching swimming.

Zory is excited to be back in Minnesota, and after a year of retirement from competing, cannot wait to return on deck helping other swimmers achieve their goals within the sport.

Krissy VanLaarhoven
Volunteer Coach

Krissy is a Falcon Alumni who swam for the Falcons from 2013-2015. She, like many of our current athletes, swam year-round spending her club season with the Aquajets. After graduating from Armstrong she swam for the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities for one year specializing in distance swimming. She retired and joined the club team at the U of M. Her favorite race is the 1000. She studied math in college and now works as an actuary.

Fun Fact: Krissy can ride a unicycle!

Christian Grobe

Volunteer Coach

I’m excited to be joining as a volunteer assistant coach this season. A little bit about me— I swam collegiately at the University of Illinois at Chicago, where I specialized in breaststroke but also have a soft spot for IM and distance freestyle. I am a dual citizen between the US and Germany and was fortunate to compete in the 2012 German Olympic Trials. I was not selected to move forward but it was still an incredible experience. 

Outside the pool, I am a pilot for Delta Airlines. I enjoy traveling and gardening. I grew up in central Illinois and I moved to Maple Grove last year. Swimming has been such a big part of my life, and I’m looking forward to helping support and encourage each of you as you work toward your goals in the pool. I’m excited to get to know you all and to be part of the team this season.

Falcon Captains 

Team captains provide leadership to the other athletes. Captains will represent the team with a high quality of sportsmanship, respect, hard work, and determination. The captains will be chosen yearly by the coaches.

Our captains will be:

• Team players and advocates for the school
• Extensions of the coaching staff
• Active listeners to athletes and coaches
• Respectful role models through sportsmanship and hard work at practice
• Maintain equality throughout the team
• Lead by example in the pool by completing all practice sets with their best effort

2026 Captains

• Maya Fadlalla
• Grace Hyland