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Braden Guzman of San Marcos, California has announced his commitment to continue his academic and athletic careers at SMU beginning in fall 2026.
“I’m extremely excited to announce my verbal commitment to continue my academic and athletic career at Southern Methodist University. I want to thank my parents and my friends for their endless support throughout this journey. I also want to thank Coach Eugene and Coach Jeff for helping me grow into the swimmer that I am today. A huge thank you to Coach Rhodenbaugh and Coach Fink for giving me this amazing opportunity. Pony up!”
Guzman swims for North Coast Aquatics out of San Diego, CA. He most recently competed at the Speedo Grand Challenge and swam to lifetime bests in the long course 100 breast (1:04.75) and 400 IM (4:40.39).
At the start of May, Guzman swam lifetime bests while swimming for Classical Academy at the CIF San Diego Sectional – Division II. He won the 100 breast in a lifetime best 54.52 as well as the 200 IM in another lifetime best 1:46.68. His 200 IM was over a two second drop.
Back in December, Guzman finaled at Winter Juniors-West as he swam to a 1:59.94 200 breast in prelims before swimmign a 1:58.88 for 17th in the final. He dropped three seconds with that swim.
Guzman’s Best SCY Times Are:
- 100 breast: 54.42
- 200 breast: 1:58.42
- 200 IM: 1:46.68
- 400 IM: 3:56.20
The SMU men finished 10th out of 15 teams at the 2026 ACC Championships with 407 points, finishing 81 points behind 9th place Notre Dame. SMU was led by diver Luke Sitz who scored 59 individual points. Francis Brennan led the team in the pool with 40 points including a 7th place finish in the 200 free.
Based on his best times, Guzman is not far off what it took to score at the 2026 ACC Championships as it took a 52.95 100 breast, 1:5 200 breast, and a 1:44.99 200 IM. Kristaps Mikelsons was the only scorer for SMU in the breaststroke events as he was 19th in the 100 (52.38) and 23rd in the 200 (1:55.45). Mikelsons will be a senior this fall. Also joining the breaststroke group is Roberto Bonilla who will transfer in from Texas A&M as a senior.
Guzman will arrive this fall as a member of the class of 2030 along with Stanton Zwygart (fly), Spencer Kinsey (breast), Ethan Hammontree (IM), Able Temiz (free), Mark Heffern (free/IM), and Josh Heydt (free/back). Kinsey is a 54.78 100 breaststroker.
If you have a commitment to report, please send an email with a photo (landscape, or horizontal, looks best) and a quote to [email protected].
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