NCAA Women’s Championships: Virginia Completes Relay Sweep With NCAA Record in 400 Free Relay
The University of Virginia has won all five relays at the NCAA Women’s Championships. The outcome here was never really in doubt, not with the group of sprinters the Cavaliers were rolling out for the final event of the meet. It didn’t even matter that Virginia was behind for the first half of the race.
Claire Curzan and Anna Moesch were already individual champions. Sara Curtis had made an enormous impact at her first NCAA Championships, placing second in the 50 free and third in the 100. Finally, Madi Mintenko had already shown some impressive range this week, with the highly-touted freshman reaching two individual A-finals.
Sprint specialists dominated the race in the opening stages: leadoff times of 46.21 from Indiana’s Liberty Clark, 46.39 for Tennessee’s Camille Spink and 46.55 for Texas’ Eva Okaro left Curzan in fourth at the start of the race, her time of 46.62 more than solid considering it came not long after she swam the second-best time in history in the 100 back. On the second leg, Mintenko came through with a 46.73 leg to move Virginia into a tie for third place.
Then Moesch went to work to conclude a week where she has lived up to every bit of hype following her breakout season. The same night as she became the third-quickest swimmer ever in the 100 free, Moesch split 45.61 to put her team into the lead entering the anchor leg, and Curtis pulled away with her 46.30 on the way home.
Those four splits resulted in a time of 3:05.26, taking down the NCAA and U.S. Open records of 3:05.30 established by Virginia at last month’s ACC Championships. Curzan, Curtis and Moesch had also been part of the previous record, with Aimee Canny also part of that team. This effort marked the first NCAA record in swimming established at this meet
More importantly, Virginia beat the field by 1.46 seconds to cap off the relay sweep and the team’s sixth consecutive national title, the first time ever a women’s swimming and diving program has won six in a row. The Cavaliers won the meet by 208.5 points as they accomplished the feat the 1980s Texas team and 1990s Stanford Cardinal came up just short of.
The drama here involved the battle for second in the team competition. Texas had sat in that spot most of the meet, but a brilliant final night for Stanford saw Lucy Bell and Torri Huske claim individual titles before Ellie Cole won platform diving. Stanford came through on the relay as well. Huske went 45.83 on the second leg before Gigi Johnson put forth a 46.26 closing split. That allowed Bell to hold off a charging Texas team for second by three tenths.
Stanford, with freshman Annam Olasewere joining the three seniors, finished in 3:06.72. The Texas team of Okaro, Lillie Nesty, Nikolett Padar and Erin Gemmell came in third at 3:07.02. Beating the Longhorns allowed Stanford to hold onto second place overall by four points, 380.5 to 376.5.
Cal, with Mary-Ambre Moluh going 46.24 on the second leg and Claire Weinstein finishing in 46.85, took fourth in 3:07.47. Clark’s leadoff split helped Indiana to a fifth-place finish (3:07.51).
Event 21 Women 400 Yard Freestyle Relay
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NCAA: N 3:05.26 3/21/2026 Virginia
C Curzan, M Mintenko, A Moesch, S Curtis
Meet: M 3:05.26 3/21/2026 Virginia
C Curzan, M Mintenko, A Moesch, S Curtis
American: A 3:05.84 3/18/2023 Virginia
K Douglass, A Walsh, M Parker, G Walsh
US Open: O 3:05.26 3/21/2026 Virginia
C Curzan, M Mintenko, A Moesch, S Curtis
Pool: P 3:05.26 3/21/2026 Virginia, Virginia-US
C Curzan, M Mintenko, A Moesch, S Curtis
School Seed Finals Points
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1 Virginia 3:05.30 3:05.26N 40
1) Curzan, Claire JR 2) r:0.11 Mintenko, Madi FR
3) r:0.43 Moesch, Anna SO 4) r:0.35 Curtis, Sara FR
r:+0.67 22.28 46.62 (46.62)
1:08.74 (22.12) 1:33.35 (46.73)
1:55.39 (22.04) 2:18.96 (45.61)
2:40.64 (21.68) 3:05.26 (46.30)
2 Stanford 3:07.59 3:06.72 34
1) Olasewere, Annam FR 2) r:0.28 Huske, Torri SR
3) r:0.11 Johnson, Gigi SR 4) r:0.23 Bell, Lucy SR
r:+0.63 22.54 47.15 (47.15)
1:08.87 (21.72) 1:32.98 (45.83)
1:54.99 (22.01) 2:19.24 (46.26)
2:41.88 (22.64) 3:06.72 (47.48)
3 Texas 3:08.14 3:07.02 32
1) Okaro, Eva FR 2) r:0.11 Nesty, Lillian SO
3) r:0.16 Padar, Nikolett FR 4) r:0.20 Gemmell, Erin JR
r:+0.66 22.18 46.55 (46.55)
1:08.89 (22.34) 1:33.82 (47.27)
1:55.94 (22.12) 2:20.36 (46.54)
2:42.36 (22.00) 3:07.02 (46.66)
4 California 3:08.58 3:07.47 30
1) West, Mia SO 2) r:0.30 Moluh, Mary-Ambre SO
3) r:0.26 O'Dell, Teagan FR 4) r:0.22 Weinstein, Claire FR
r:+0.65 22.40 47.11 (47.11)
1:09.02 (21.91) 1:33.35 (46.24)
1:55.92 (22.57) 2:20.62 (47.27)
2:43.05 (22.43) 3:07.47 (46.85)
5 Indiana 3:07.72 3:07.51 28
1) Clark, Liberty FR 2) r:0.11 Shackell, Alex FR
3) r:0.22 Hoeper, Grace FR 4) r:0.25 Paegle, Kristina SR
r:+0.61 22.16 46.21 (46.21)
1:08.48 (22.27) 1:32.99 (46.78)
1:55.73 (22.74) 2:20.55 (47.56)
2:42.53 (21.98) 3:07.51 (46.96)
6 Michigan 3:07.90 3:08.03 26
1) Balduccini, Stephanie JR 2) r:0.34 Kendall, Brady SR
3) r:0.27 Greenhawt, Lexi JR 4) r:0.21 Sims, Bella JR
r:+0.63 22.73 47.77 (47.77)
1:09.69 (21.92) 1:34.84 (47.07)
1:56.72 (21.88) 2:21.69 (46.85)
2:43.80 (22.11) 3:08.03 (46.34)
7 Louisville 3:08.14 3:08.28 24
1) Larsen, Caroline SO 2) r:0.10 Dennis, Julia SR
3) r:0.29 Mishler, Julie FR 4) r:0.13 Gorbenko, Anastasia SO
r:+0.72 22.59 47.36 (47.36)
1:09.30 (21.94) 1:33.90 (46.54)
1:56.23 (22.33) 2:21.30 (47.40)
2:43.62 (22.32) 3:08.28 (46.98)
8 Tennessee 3:09.03 3:08.55 22
1) Spink, Camille JR 2) r:0.31 Armen, Emily SO
3) r:0.23 Jansen, Ella SO 4) r:0.24 Bocska, Julianna FR
r:+0.65 22.27 46.39 (46.39)
1:08.93 (22.54) 1:33.86 (47.47)
1:56.07 (22.21) 2:20.73 (46.87)
2:43.22 (22.49) 3:08.55 (47.82)
