Virginia senior Matt Brownstead announced his retirement on Instagram following the NCAA Championships last weekend, cutting his swimming career short before the U.S. Olympic Trials this summer and opting not to use his fifth year of collegiate eligibility afforded to him by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Wow. It’s crazy to think that my swimming career has come to an end, Brownstead wrote on Instagram. I can’t say thank you enough to everyone that has taken this journey through the sport with me. I couldn’t have asked for a better group of people to call family over the past four years. Time to enjoy retirement.
Brownstead owns a pair of Olympic Trials cuts in the 50-meter freestyle (22.54) and 100 free (49.75). Those times would have placed 20th in the 50 free and 26th in the 100 free at the last Trials in 2021.
Brownstead wrapped up his college career with a 6th-place finish in the 100-yard free (41.50) at NCAAs on Saturday, within a few tenths of his school record (41.22) from his sophomore season. His best NCAA finishes came in 2022, when he placed 3rd in the 50 free (18.60) and 4th in the 100 free (41.22).
Brownstead burst onto the scene as a freshman with ACC titles in the 50 free (18.88) and 100 free (41.87) during the 2020-21 season. At the 2022 ACC Championships, he led off the Cavaliers’ 200 free relay with a time of 18.87 to help them break the American record in 1:14.47. That standard stood for two years before NC State lowered it to 1:14.44 at ACCs in February.
Before he arrived in Charlottesville, Brownstead was a standout high school swimmer in State College, Pennsylvania, taking down Caeleb Dressel’s national public high school record in the 50 free (19.29 from 2013) with his 2020 PIAA title in 19.24. That mark stood for about a year until Aiden Hayes clocked a 19.20 in 2021. Brownstead also went to the 2019 World Juniors Championships, posting a 49.85 relay split in the 400 free relay prelims along with Jack Alexy, Jack Armstrong, and Luca Urlando.
In December, Brownstead got engaged to fellow Virginia senior Quinn Schaedler, a member of the Cavalier women’s swim team from 2020-23. The pair have been dating since their freshman years in 2020.
