Colby College

Tom Burton heads into his 28th year as head coach of Men's and Women's Swimming and Diving at Colby in the 2025-26 academic year. 

Under his tutelage Colby swimmers have set more than 120 school records. At the conference level 16 swimmers have captured NESCAC titles while 74 have earned All-NESCAC honors. Nationally Colby has finished as high as eighth at the NCAA Division III Championships. Twenty-five swimmers and divers have competed at the NCAA meet, garnering 75 All-America and 14 College Swimming Coaches Association of America Academic All-America honors.

In recognition of his athletes' success, Burton was honored as the NESCAC Women's Swimming Coach of the Year in 2001 and 2005. He has been awarded the Certificate of Excellence eight times by the American Swim Coaches Association, most recently in 2009.  

Burton previously served for six years as the head swimming coach at Lake Forest College, where his teams won eight conference championships. He served as the chair of swimming for the Midwest Conference Championships (MWC) for five years, was honored as MWC Coach of the Year three out of six seasons, and was Illinois Collegiate Coach of the Year twice.  In 2019, Lke Forest inducted Burton into their Athletics Hall of Fame as a coach for the success the program experienced under his leadership. 

During Burton's career his swimmers have competed in the NCAA Championships and have recorded 104 All-America performances, including a national title. In addition, his athletes have competed at both the Senior and Junior nationals, obtained U.S. Open and Olympic Trial qualifying standards, and earned Academic All-America, NCAA Post-Graduate Scholarship, and GTE Academic All-America honors.

Burton, a graduate of Hamilton College, also serves as Associate Director of Athletics at Colby.