Bio

Matthew Kinney has led the Carnegie Mellon University women’s swimming and diving team to 12 appearances at the NCAA Championships in his 16 seasons as the head swimming and diving coach of the Tartans, with the 2023 squad tying the 2018 squad by earning the program's highest finish ever at 15th.

Ten swimmers and two divers competed at the 2023 NCAA Division III Swimming and Diving Championships where they collected the most points in a championship meet for the Tartans and placed 15th overall. Six swimmers earned All-America or All-America Second Team honors with freshman Savannah Xu earning the highest individual swimming finish (6th) since 2018. Two divers collected three All-America awards to mark the first time two women divers placed at the championships since 2005.

Under Kinney, the women have set and re-set school records in every event including six in 2023.

Recent championship history:

• Four swimmers competed at the 2022 NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships earning points in three events to place 24th overall.
• A then school-record 11 women were set to compete at the 2020 NCAA Championships before the meet was canceled due to COVID-19. All 11 received All-America recognition with three earning more than one. The Tartans set seven school records, including three relays, that season.
• In 2019, two swimmers competed at the NCAA Championships, earning four All-America Honorable Mention awards to place 30th overall.
• In 2018, Kinney led 10 athletes to the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships where two athletes earned hardware by finishing in the top eight and a total of 10 All-America awards were received by six swimmers.
• Four athletes competed at the 2017 NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships where three scored points to finish 23rd. Emma Nicklas-Morris became the first Tartan woman to earn two top-8 finishes at the same meet since 2008.

In 2011, the 800-yard freestyle relay became the first relay in program history to earn All-America recognition. Since then, the honor has been earned by a 400-yard freestyle relay, two 200-yard medley relay teams, and four different 400-yard medley relay teams.

Kinney is a big proponent of academics as his teams have earned Scholar All-America recognition in each of his 16 seasons. Additionally, nine times a women's athlete has been named to the College Sports Communicators Academic All-America Team, while a male has earned the honor six times during Kinney’s tenure.

To top off Kinney’s career at Carnegie Mellon, he has mentored 36 Carnegie Mellon male athletes to 125 All-America honors and 32 women to 85 All-America honors. Kinney and his assistants have also been named UAA Men’s Coaching Staff of the Year three times (2009, 2010, and 2013).

Prior to the 2007-2008 season, Kinney spent 12 years as the head men's and women's swimming coach at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Virginia.

Throughout his 12-year tenure as head coach at Mary Washington, Kinney led the men's and women's teams to an impressive combined dual mark of 182-59 and a total of 22 combined Capital Athletic Conference (CAC) titles, including 12 straight for the women’s program. During Mary Washington’s conference title run, he was named CAC Coach of the Year 12 times, seven with the women's program and five with the men. Kinney has brought tremendous coaching experience to Carnegie Mellon University, as he coached 88 All-America performers at UMW.

A native of Canton, Ohio, Kinney is a 1993 graduate of Kenyon College with a Bachelor of Arts degree in history. While a student-athlete at Kenyon he was a three-time All-America athlete for the Lords and was part of three NCAA Division III National Championship teams. He was also selected captain his senior season. Following his undergraduate work, Kinney went on to Western Illinois University, where he earned a Master of Science degree in sports management while assisting with the swimming program.