From Carnegie Mellon University Athletics
Carnegie Mellon University men's swimming and diving graduate student James Kyle has been named to the inaugural Academic All-America® men's swimming and diving team as selected by the College Sports Communicators. In previous years, swimming and diving was in the at-large group comprised of the following sports for NCAA Division III: water polo, fencing, tennis, golf, field hockey, wrestling, lacrosse, men's volleyball, skiing, and ice hockey.
This prestigious award for Kyle marks the ninth time a Carnegie Mellon men's swimming and diving athlete has earned Academic All-America recognition and the first time for a diver in program history. Kyle was selected to the third team and joins Justin Britton (2019, 2020, 2022), Alex Hanson (2010, 2011), Chris Pearson (2004, 2005), and John Murray (1999) as the honorees in Carnegie Mellon history.
Kyle graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering in May 2022 with a 3.92 GPA and currently holds a 4.00 through one semester of graduate work in mechanical engineering. He completed his athletic career at the 2023 NCAA Division III Men's Swimming and Diving Championships on Saturday, March 18 with two All-America performances. Kyle earned a sixth-place finish on the 1-meter board and a fifth-place finish on the 3-meter board to become the first men's diver in Carnegie Mellon history to finish in the top eight in both events at the same championships meet. His awards added to his fourth-place finish on the 3-meter board in 2022 at the national meet, along with his 2022 NCAA Region 4 Championship on the 3-meter board. Kyle is the only diver in program history to earn three top-eight finishes and All-America trophies.
Additional diving accolades for Kyle include placing third on the 3-meter board at the University Athletic Association Championships twice and third on both the 1-meter board and 3-meter board at this year's NCAA Region 4 Championships. Kyle, who took advantage of the extra year to compete provided by the NCAA following the cancelation of a season due to COVID-19, was due to compete at the NCAA Championships in 2020 and was subsequently awarded All-America recognition on both boards.
Out of the pool, Kyle earned an undergraduate excellence in research award, has been a mentor and graduate researcher in the Robomechanics lab. He is a Pi Tau Sigma member, the secretary for Tau Beta Pi, was an author on a paper that won Outstanding Locomotion Paper at ICRA 2022, and twice received accolades for the most innovative project for Electromechanical Systems Design and Design 2.
Kyle spent the 2022 summer as a mechanical engineering intern at Apptronik and has been a research assistant in the Robomechanics Lab on the Lego Walker Project since the summer of 2021.