Morford is 100 yard Backstroke Champion for Second Straight Year

(INDIANAPOLIS, Ind.) – The Carnegie Mellon University men's swimming and diving team continued competition at the 2026 NCAA Division III Swimming and Diving Championships on Friday, March 20, at the IU Natatorium in Indianapolis, Indiana. Six top 16 finishes on day three put the Tartans in sixth place out of 43 teams with 168 points.

Inside the Results

• The 200-yard medley relay team of senior Arnav Deshpande, junior Aaron Lee, junior Brayden Morford, and freshman Noah Barrett started the meet with a second-place finish after a school-record performance of 1:26.39.
• Freshman Tenmy Wangpo then placed 13th in the 200-yard butterfly with a time of 1:48.06.
• Morford became the back-to-back 100-yard backstroke champion when he touched first in a time of 46.29 seconds to break his own school record of 46.61 set at last year's championship meet. Deshpande earned All-America honors in the event by placing seventh with a time of 47.60 seconds.
• Lee earned All-America Second Team with a 16th-place finish in the 100-yard breaststroke with a career-best time of 55.21.
• The relay team of freshman Alex Luebke, Morford, freshman Max Gu, and junior Cole Venters closed the meet with an amazing swim in the 800-yard freestyle relay to place fifth with a time of 6:33.68.

Up Next

Tomorrow, Saturday, March 21, the Tartans will compete in the last day of the NCAA Championships. Events will begin at 10:00 a.m. with preliminaries in the 100-yard freestyle, 200-yard backstroke, 200-yard breaststroke and 400-yard freestyle relay.