The 15-time national champion from New York University didn’t expect to spend so much of her NCAA career atop the podium
In the McIntyre family, swimming is the law.
At least, that’s what Kaley McIntyre’s mom, a former UC Davis swimmer, told her when she signed up the then-4-year-old for a swim team with her brother and cousins. Though Kaley went on to play basketball, soccer and lacrosse throughout her childhood, she came back to the pool every summer.
“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 said.
It was McIntyre’s enjoyment of the sport, not her performance, that kept her coming back. That joy carried her to New York University, where she picked up a slogan from a teammate her junior year.
“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 said.
By that time, McIntyre’s fun, fast swimming had made her the most dominant athlete in Division III swimming.
She won her first individual NCAA national championships in the 50- and 200-yard freestyle events her freshman year. She added three individual titles (50, 100 and 200 freestyle) and one relay (800 free) each her sophomore and junior years. As a senior, she captured three individual and two relay titles, tying the Division III record for most individual national championships (11).
In June, the Collegiate Women Sports Awards program named McIntyre the Division III Honda Athlete of the Year. 2026 marks the 50th year of the CWSA program, which honors the nation’s top female collegiate athletes for excellence in athletics, leadership, academics and community service. The Collegiate Woman Athlete of the Year, the CWSA’s highest honor, will be announced and presented with the Honda Cup at 7 p.m. Eastern time today on the CBS Sports Network. The awards broadcast also will celebrate McIntyre.
McIntyre was underrecruited out of high school. Half of the emails she sent to college coaches went unanswered, and when she arrived at New York University, she flew under the radar swimming the backstroke. McIntyre’s coach noticed potential when she swam the freestyle in a relay and suggested that she prioritize the stroke over her “subpar” backstroke.
McIntyre entered the University Athletic Association conference meet her freshman year as an unassuming competitor ranked in the mid-20s in the 200 free. She dropped seven seconds from her 200 free at the meet, taking first place with a personal best of 1:48.78.
It was McIntyre’s own rise from relative swimming obscurity to 15-time national champion that taught her to expect the unexpected.
“I always knew that there was somebody better than me, and I definitely still always hold that perspective,” McIntyre said.
Before McIntyre’s rookie campaign in 2023, the Violets had never placed higher than fifth at a national championship. The squad wasn’t overlooked but wasn’t a heavy favorite, either. Kenyon, Denison and Emory were the only schools to win a Division III women’s swimming championship for 40 years, passing the title around from 1984 to 2024.
McIntyre felt New York University improving throughout her tenure. The squad tied its program record with a fifth-place finish in 2023. The team climbed to third in 2024. In 2025, MIT disrupted the three-way dynasty and claimed the national title, while McIntyre’s team took second.
2026 marked McIntyre’s last year as a Violet and her final shot at a team 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 said. “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 finish. Second-place Emory tallied 433.5, and Kenyon and Denison slotted into third and fourth place, respectively. McIntyre placed first in the 50 free, 100 free and 200 free. She anchored a pair of national champion squads in the 200 and 400 freestyle relays.
For all the success she had in the water, the highlight of McIntyre’s NCAA experience was celebrating others. Dynasties be damned, she fell in love with the community she found at her swim meets ― a community she thinks is unique 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 said.
The competitors at her meets ranged from powerhouse teams to schools with just one swimmer rostered. McIntyre liked to “adopt” swimmers from smaller schools, making sure every athlete had someone 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 said.
McIntyre’s individual impact on Division III women’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 conference records and eight program records. She also is a CSCAA first-team Scholar All-American and an NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship winner.
Reflecting on her rise to the pinnacle of Division III athletics, McIntyre doesn’t forget her roots as an overlooked backstroker who was willing to try something new.
“I hope I just gave people the confidence that it was OK to fail, that it was OK to try,” McIntyre said.
