Brendan Burns is an NCAA Champion in the 200 Fly and 100 Back. He is a 19x NCAA All-American and 17x Big Ten Champion for the Indiana Hoosiers.
High School
Burns swam for the Upper Mainline YMCA club team, where he was a 23x YMCA national champion. He also swam for Conestoga high school, where he was a 6x PIAA state champion. Burns was also a member of the 2019 World Jr Championships team.
Burns was ranked #1 on SwimSwam’s Top-20 NCAA Recruits for the Class of 2019. On May 2, 2018, Burns announced his verbal commitment to Indiana University.
College (Indiana)
2019-2020
Burns had an immediate impact during his freshman year at Indiana. At his first Big Ten Champs, he started in the 200 medley relay, where he split 20.20 on the fly leg to help IU take the title. He also swam the 800 free relay in night 1, helping IU to 3rd. He swam fly again in the 400 medley relay, splitting 44.89 to help IU to another medley victory. He went on to place 3rd in the 100 fly (45.47), 2nd in the 100 back (45.75), and 1st in the 200 fly (1:40.98).
2020-2021
Burns started his 2nd Big Ten Champs by leading off IU’s 200 medley relay (21.31), helping them to a 3rd place finish. He also helped IU to a 3rd place finish in the 800 free relay. On the next night, he helped the 400 medley relay (fly, 44.79) to victory. On night 3, Burns placed 2nd to IU teammate Tomer Frankel in the 100 fly (45.26). On night 4, Burns took a victory in the 200 Fly, winning in 1:39.22 in a new meet record. On the final night, he won the 200 back (1:39.37) and helped IU secure a victory in the 400 free relay.
At NCAAs, he started things off in the 800 free relay, going 3rd to help IU place 9th. In the 400 medley relay, he led off in 44.84 to help IU place 5th. Individually, he placed 13th in the 100 fly (45.53), 6th in the 100 back (45.03), and 7th in the 200 fly (1:40.42). He finished the meet on IU’s 400 free relay, helping them place 11th overall.
2021-2022
Burns had his best campaign to date his junior year. He started his 3rd Big Ten Champs by anchoring Indiana’s 800 free relay to victory in 1:33.36. On day 2, he helped IU break the big ten record in the 400 medley relay, leading off in 44.43. On day 3, he scratched the 100 fly to focus on the 100 back, seeing this pay off when he won the title in another big ten record, 44.31. However, Burns saved the best for the last day as he took on the 200 back/200 fly double once again (and won both once again). He first took the W in the 200 back in 1:39.34, then proceeded to win the 200 fly in 1:39.81.
At the NCAAs, Burns once again started his meet in the 800 free relay, helping Indiana place 9th overall. He switched his events focus back to the 100 fly/100 back double, where he placed 9th in the 100 fly (44.54) and 2nd in the 100 back (44.15). He finished that night 3 by leading off IU’s 400 medley relay (44.45) to help them earn 2nd. Burns once again saved the best for last, only swimming the 200 fly on night 4 and getting his hand on the wall first (1:38.71), just .11 ahead of 2nd place and .17 ahead of 3rd.
2022-2023
Burns had a perfect meet at the 2023 Men’s Big Ten Championships, winning every event he dove in for. This included the 100 back (44.65), 200 back (1:38.22), and 200 fly (1:39.51) individually as well as on Indiana’s 800 free and 400 medley relays.
At his 4th NCAAs, Burns was once again crowned a champion. On night 3, after winning the B-final in the 100 fly (44.60), Burns used a massive last underwater to power his way to victory in the 100 back, touching for first in 43.61. He placed 2nd in the 200 fly on the last night with 1:38.97. Burns also swam in Indiana’s 5th place 200 medley relay, 4th place 800 free relay, and 2nd place 400 medley relay (2nd fastest relay performance in history).
2023-24
Burns returned to IU for one last hurrah, using his COVID 5th year.
In his first SCY meet, Burns notched wins in the 100 back (47.17), 200 back (1:44.14), and 200 fly (1:44.80) against Missouri and Auburn.
At the Ohio State Invite which featured LCM prelims and SCY finals, Burns had solid swims, winning the 100 back (45.29, 55.68 prelims) and netting 3rd in the 100 fly (45.97, 53.49 prelims). Burns clocked a season-best 45.19 100 back leading off in the 400 medley relay. He also tried the 50 free, clocking a 19.90 after a 23.62 in prelims.
Against Michigan, Burns clocked season-bests in the 200 back (1:43.99) and fly (1:44.37) both for the win. He also won the 100 back in 46.83.
As championship season rolled around, Burns came into form. Against Louisville and Wisconsin in early February, Burns clocked some big season bests in his signature 200 back and fly. He won the latter, touching in a 1:40.78. That swim made Burns #7 in the NCAA. His win came in the 200 backstroke in 1:40.04, #13 in the NCAA. He also won the 100 back in 45.91.
Burns started off his final Big 10 Championships with a season-best 50 back as Burns (20.98), Finn Brooks (22.91), Tomer Frankel (19.41), and Gavin Wight (18.87) clocked a time of 1:22.17 in the 200 medley relay. They narrowly missed the championship record (1:22.13) by 0.04, but did record a sizable new season-best time. That was Burn’s first sub-21-second 50 back of the season. He followed that up with a 1:33.25 200 free anchor to net IU an 800 free relay title.
As he is known to do, Burns did not swim any individual events on day 2 but he did clock a 45.00 100 back leading off in the Hosiers’ victorious 400 medley relay. The next morning, Burns neared that mark with a 45.34 before dominantly winning the final with a 44.62.
Burns took on the dirty double on day 4, leading the 200 back prelims with a 1:40.88 and taking the 2nd seed in the 200 fly with a 1:41.57 behind Michigan’s Tyler Ray. In finals, Burns started off his double well, grabbing another title in 1:39.50. He was not able to repeat his luck in the 200 fly, swimming a 1:40.24, still an excellent swim, for 3rd. IU ended up winning the meet by a large margin.
After completing the dirty double at numerous invites and Big 10s, the release of psych sheets revealed Burns would attempt it for his first time at NCAAs. He kicked off his final NCAAs, in front of a home-state crowd at IUPUI, with a 20.79 50 back. That, along with his teammates, was good enough for 6th in the 200 medley relay in 1:22.10. He followed that up with a 1:32.00 200 free split as IU also placed 6th in the 800 free relay.
Burns did not swim on day 2 but showed up on day 3 in full force. He swam a season-best 44.51 to qualify back 7th in the 100 back. From the outside lane, Burns, the defending champion, took the lead at the finish to repeat as national champion in 43.65. It was Burns’ 3rd straight year as a national champion, having won the 200 fly in 2022. On the back of that swim, Burns led the Hosiers to a 4th-place finish in the 400 medley relay, leading off in 44.43.
On the final day, Burns made “A” finals in all three events for the first time ever. His double started off well, as Burns clocked a PB in the 200 back to qualify 6th in 1:38.18. The 200 fly was a bit rougher, with Burns fading some coming home. Burns just barely qualified for the “A” final, .01 seconds ahead of 9th-place Andrei Minakov in a 1:40.40. In the 200 back final, Burns still put up a good showing, placing 7th in 1:38.62. In his 4th 200 of the day, Burns ended up 8th in the 100 fly with a 1:41.73
Burns netted 43 points overall, helping IU to a 4th-place team finish, just 2 points back of 3rd-place Florida.
