Kaley McIntyre’s climb: The DIII Honda Athlete of the Year’s rise to swimming dominance – NCAA.org

The 15-time nationwide champion from New York University didn’t anticipate to spend a lot of her NCAA profession atop the rostrum

In the McIntyre household, swimming is the regulation.

At least, that’s what Kaley McIntyre’s mother, a former UC Davis swimmer, informed her when she signed up the then-4-year-old for a swim staff together with her brother and cousins. Though Kaley went on to play basketball, soccer and lacrosse all through her childhood, she got here again to the pool each summer season.

“I think swimming was just always there. I mean, since I was 4, it’s the first thing I did. I don’t even remember learning how to swim,” McIntyre stated.

It was McIntyre’s enjoyment of the game, not her efficiency, that stored her coming again. That pleasure carried her to New York University, the place she picked up a slogan from a teammate her junior 12 months.

“She started saying, ‘Fast swimming is fun swimming, and fun swimming is fast.’ And that’s definitely something I didn’t realize I had lived by until she put it into words,” McIntyre stated.

By that point, McIntyre’s enjoyable, quick swimming had made her essentially the most dominant athlete in Division III swimming.

She gained her first particular person NCAA nationwide championships within the 50- and 200-yard freestyle occasions her freshman 12 months. She added three particular person titles (50, 100 and 200 freestyle) and one relay (800 free) every her sophomore and junior years. As a senior, she captured three particular person and two relay titles, tying the Division III file for many particular person nationwide championships (11).

In June, the Collegiate Women Sports Awards program named McIntyre the Division III Honda Athlete of the Year. 2026 marks the fiftieth 12 months of the CWSA program, which honors the nation’s prime feminine collegiate athletes for excellence in athletics, management, teachers and group service. The Collegiate Woman Athlete of the Year, the CWSA’s highest honor, shall be introduced and offered with the Honda Cup at 7 p.m. Eastern time in the present day on the CBS Sports Network. The awards broadcast additionally will rejoice McIntyre.

McIntyre was underrecruited out of highschool. Half of the emails she despatched to school coaches went unanswered, and when she arrived at New York University, she flew underneath the radar swimming the backstroke. McIntyre’s coach observed potential when she swam the freestyle in a relay and advised that she prioritize the stroke over her “subpar” backstroke.

McIntyre entered the University Athletic Association convention meet her freshman 12 months as an unassuming competitor ranked within the mid-20s within the 200 free. She dropped seven seconds from her 200 free on the meet, taking first place with a private better of 1:48.78.

It was McIntyre’s personal rise from relative swimming obscurity to 15-time nationwide champion that taught her to anticipate the surprising.

“I always knew that there was somebody better than me, and I definitely still always hold that perspective,” McIntyre stated.

Before McIntyre’s rookie marketing campaign in 2023, the Violets had by no means positioned increased than fifth at a nationwide championship. The squad wasn’t ignored however wasn’t a heavy favourite, both. Kenyon, Denison and Emory have been the one colleges to win a Division III girls’s swimming championship for 40 years, passing the title round from 1984 to 2024.

McIntyre felt New York University enhancing all through her tenure. The squad tied its program file with a fifth-place end in 2023. The staff climbed to 3rd in 2024. In 2025, MIT disrupted the three-way dynasty and claimed the nationwide title, whereas McIntyre’s staff took second.

2026 marked McIntyre’s final 12 months as a Violet and her ultimate shot at a staff title.

“It just felt right this year from the start that we were going to put up a good fight. I think that’s how I approached everything. You never count anybody out of something,” she stated. “So I definitely was like, ‘We’re going to be the people that you cannot count out, and we’re going to make people fight to win something.’”

The Violets took first place with a decisive 517-point end. Second-place Emory tallied 433.5, and Kenyon and Denison slotted into third and fourth place, respectively. McIntyre positioned first within the 50 free, 100 free and 200 free. She anchored a pair of nationwide champion squads within the 200 and 400 freestyle relays.

For all of the success she had within the water, the spotlight of McIntyre’s NCAA expertise was celebrating others. Dynasties be damned, she fell in love with the group she discovered at her swim meets ― a group she thinks is exclusive to Division III athletics.

“I never imagined that people across teams could be so friendly and actually want to talk and get to know you,” McIntyre stated.

The opponents at her meets ranged from powerhouse groups to colleges with only one swimmer rostered. McIntyre preferred to “adopt” swimmers from smaller colleges, ensuring each athlete had somebody cheering them on.

“I always wanted to take in those other people and be really supportive because at the end of the day, if our division as a whole is doing well, it means that we’ll have more opportunities for things, too,” McIntyre stated.

McIntyre’s particular person influence on Division III girls’s swimming can’t be understated. 

A 27-time College Swimming and Diving Coaches Association of America first-team All-American and three-time CSCAA Division III Swimmer of the Year, McIntyre holds seven convention information and eight program information. She is also a CSCAA first-team Scholar All-American and an NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship winner.

Reflecting on her rise to the top of Division III athletics, McIntyre doesn’t neglect her roots as an ignored backstroker who was prepared to attempt one thing new.

“I hope I just gave people the confidence that it was OK to fail, that it was OK to try,” McIntyre stated.