Tartans Win Three National Titles in Men’s Swimming and Diving

This weekend, the Carnegie Mellon University men’s swimming and diving(opens in new window) program won three national titles — two by sophomore Brayden Morford(opens in new window) in the 200-yard individual medley and 100-yard backstroke, and one by the 400-yard medley relay team — and earned All-America honors in nine events to power the team to a sixth-place finish at the 2025 NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships. The finish is the highest since 2005 and tied for the fourth-highest finish in program history.

The Tartans opened with an incredible first night by claiming two national championships.

Morford had his mind set on winning three individual races. By the first night’s end, the versatile sophomore without a weak stroke glided through the water to earn the national championship in the 200-yard IM. He won the event by 76 hundredths of a second with a school-record time of 1:45.50 to become the first national champion in head coach Matthew Kinney(opens in new window)’s 30-year career and first for the Tartans since 2007.

Three events later, Morford was back at the starting block with three of his teammates for the 400-yard medley relay. Junior Arnav Deshpande, who was no stranger to the moment having swam to four relay All-America performances but never placing better than fifth, was set to lead off with the backstroke for the fifth time in his career.

As senior Christian Lanuza was set to enter the water for the breaststroke, he had three people to catch. His split of 53.68 over the 100 yards put the Tartans fifth, as Tufts clung to a slight lead over Emory. Morford was next and came up with the fastest butterfly split to move the team into second with only the freestyle left and freshman Matthew Peitler ready to dive in and make history for the program and Kinney.

Peitler sprinted through the water and at the 50-yard turn, was 18 hundredths of a second off the lead. As he matched Emory’s freestyler stroke for stroke, his final turn was fast and smooth and left little doubt for his teammates waiting at the wall as he passed his rival and won by nearly a body length to earn the program’s first relay national title.

“At the third 25 — when Morford had closed the gap substantially — we knew he had it,” Kinney said. “It was a combination of great efforts and every person doing exactly what they needed to do. The elation and celebration of that moment was priceless!”

As the meet went on, the Tartans would claim three additional individual All-America swims (top 8), three more relay All-America swims and one All-America Second Team swim (places 9 through 16). 

Morford’s second national championship came on the third night in the 100-yard backstroke. It was the sophomore’s third individual event of the meet and third event for which he held the nation’s top time.

Having placed fourth in the 100-yard butterfly the night before, Morford was still confident as he readied himself at the starting block.

“Given that I was seeded 1st in the 100 fly heading into NCAAs, fourth place was definitely not what I had hoped for in that event,” Morford said. “However, I have no regrets about that race. I knew I executed my race strategy well, and for whatever reason I just didn't have as fast a swim. I've gotten comfortable with the fact that you rarely will ever have a meet where every single swim goes exactly how you want.”

Morford qualified for the championship final of the backstroke with the third-best time — but it only takes one top-level swim to be the best. Morford showed his mettle by closing 50 yards that took him from 22 hundredths of a second behind, to the winner’s podium by 57 hundredths of a second with yet another school-record finish of 46.61.

“What separates the good from the great is how they respond to something not going their way.  It's easy to feel confident when you're on a hot streak and setting personal records, but the mental strength to enter every race with the exact same confidence, no matter what happened earlier, is something that I've been working on and really pride myself in,” Morford said.

A career finish

A club swimmer at The Ohio State University the past three years, graduate student Frank Jones enrolled in Carnegie Mellon’s master of business analytics program with a year of eligibility remaining in the water.

When junior D.J. Lloyd’s injury to close the season kept him from participating in the championship meet, Jones was ready as the alternate who Kinney proudly states earned the right to complete the team.

“Frank is such a funny, kind and hard-working athlete. He relished just about every aspect of this year with the team and we could not be prouder of him. He's just a workhorse who loves swimming and had a ton of talent.”

And Jones found his career moment, swimming his way to the podium and a pair of fourth-place finishes in the 200-yard freestyle relay and 400-yard freestyle relay.

On the final night of competition, Morford’s determination in the pool was a motivator for Peitler and Lanuza, as the grueling meet of preliminaries and finals came to a close.

The freshman and senior qualified for their respective championship finals, the 100-yard freestyle and 200-yard breaststroke. Peitler broke his own school record by finishing in 43.63 to place fifth while Lanuza garnered his first career individual All-America award by placing eighth after also topping his own school record during the preliminaries at 1:58.34. Freshman Matvey Malinovski also swam in the finals on Saturday night, placing 14th in the 200-yard backstroke to earn All-America Second Team.

“Going into finals, I had achieved everything I had wanted out of swimming and then some,” Lanuza said. “Because I knew it was going to be my last swim, I took the time to soak it all in: I looked at the pool, my teammates and coaches, the crowd and then my family. When I dove into the pool, I gave everything I had for those final eight laps.”