NCAA Women’s Championships: Bella Sims Holds off Lucy Bell for 400 IM Title
Bella Sims knew the charge was going to come from Lucy Bell on breaststroke Thursday night. When they turned for freestyle, the Michigan junior had enough left in the tank.
Sims went 3:58.08 to win the NCAA title in the 400 individual medley at Georgia Tech’s McAuley Natatorium. She held off Bell by .64 seconds.
Teagan O’Dell was third in 3:59.43, fending off Ella Jansen of Tennessee by .16 seconds. Virginia scored in fifth and eighth, with Katie Grimes and Aimee Canny, respectively. Caroline Bricker was sixth, Rosie Murphy of UCLA seventh.
“It means the world,” Sims said. “I had a lot of goals going into this meet but intentions were different than any other NCAA meet. Being able to do this and contribute to this team, I couldn’t be more happy.”
Sims went to the front early and led the whole way. She had O’Dell for company in butterfly and then Grimes in second place on the backstroke leg. O’Dell pushed into second on the first 50 of breaststroke.
But Bell came roaring on the second. Third place in each of the last two years, the Stanford senior split 32.45-32.93 on breaststroke when everyone else was toiling in the 34s if they were lucky. That put her within a half-second of Sims for the final 100. Not only did she hold it, she outsplit Sims on the final 50, coming home in 27.14. Only Jansen in fourth was quicker in the eighth 50.
“I wanted to take fly easy speed, build it on backstroke and then worked on my pullouts in the breaststroke,” Sims said. “Swimming my own race was probably the most important thing.”
Bricker, the reigning champion, was never a factor for the title in sixth. Grimes finished fourth last year. Bell was third with Bricker fourth in 2024.
O’Dell had entered as the 13th seed. Murphy was up from 11th to get into the A final for UCLA. He was 31st in this event last year.
Virginia scored Leah Hayes in 10th place in the morning, though Sophia Umstead missed out on a score. Stanford had Emily Thompson 11th, a spot ahead of Texas’ Campbell Stoll.
Event 5 Women 400 Yard IM
=========================================================================
NCAA: N 3:54.60 3/16/2018 Ella Eastin, Stanford
Meet: M 3:54.60 3/16/2018 Ella Eastin, Stanford
American: A 3:54.60 3/16/2018 Ella Eastin, Stanford
US Open: O 3:54.60 3/16/2018 Ella Eastin, Stanford
Pool: P 3:57.25 3/18/2022 Alex Walsh, Virginia
Name Year School Prelims Finals Points
=========================================================================
=== Championship Final ===
1 Sims, Bella JR Michigan 4:01.07 3:58.08 20
r:+0.56 24.69 53.39 (28.70)
1:23.71 (30.32) 1:52.75 (29.04)
2:27.49 (34.74) 3:02.45 (34.96)
3:30.62 (28.17) 3:58.08 (27.46)
2 Bell, Lucy SR Stanford 4:01.52 3:58.72 17
r:+0.69 25.71 54.73 (29.02)
1:26.66 (31.93) 1:57.55 (30.89)
2:30.00 (32.45) 3:02.93 (32.93)
3:31.58 (28.65) 3:58.72 (27.14)
3 O'Dell, Teagan FR California 4:01.78 3:59.43 16
r:+0.75 25.12 54.15 (29.03)
1:24.69 (30.54) 1:54.25 (29.56)
2:28.65 (34.40) 3:03.68 (35.03)
3:32.11 (28.43) 3:59.43 (27.32)
4 Jansen, Ella SO Tennessee 4:00.24 3:59.59 15
r:+0.73 25.37 54.52 (29.15)
1:24.80 (30.28) 1:54.32 (29.52)
2:29.22 (34.90) 3:04.71 (35.49)
3:32.73 (28.02) 3:59.59 (26.86)
5 Grimes, Katie SO Virginia 4:02.46 4:00.56 14
r:+0.66 25.54 54.49 (28.95)
1:24.51 (30.02) 1:54.13 (29.62)
2:29.64 (35.51) 3:05.52 (35.88)
3:33.25 (27.73) 4:00.56 (27.31)
6 Bricker, Caroline JR Stanford 4:03.65 4:02.23 13
r:+0.65 25.55 54.71 (29.16)
1:26.86 (32.15) 1:57.75 (30.89)
2:31.79 (34.04) 3:06.24 (34.45)
3:34.62 (28.38) 4:02.23 (27.61)
7 Murphy, Rosie SR UCLA 4:02.22 4:03.55 12
r:+0.66 25.37 54.32 (28.95)
1:25.29 (30.97) 1:56.00 (30.71)
2:30.38 (34.38) 3:05.87 (35.49)
3:35.24 (29.37) 4:03.55 (28.31)
8 Canny, Aimee SR Virginia 4:03.20 4:05.16 11
r:+0.73 25.58 54.95 (29.37)
1:26.94 (31.99) 1:58.56 (31.62)
2:33.32 (34.76) 3:08.38 (35.06)
3:37.15 (28.77) 4:05.16 (28.01)
=== Preliminaries ===
9 Brown, Emily SO Tennessee 4:04.09 9
r:0.71 25.65 54.62 (28.97)
1:25.82 (31.20) 1:55.90 (30.08)
2:30.42 (34.52) 3:06.98 (36.56)
3:36.20 (29.22) 4:04.09 (27.89)
10 Hayes, Leah SO Virginia 4:04.12 7
r:0.79 26.06 55.40 (29.34)
1:26.34 (30.94) 1:57.42 (31.08)
2:31.67 (34.25) 3:06.65 (34.98)
3:35.83 (29.18) 4:04.12 (28.29)
11 Thompson, Emily SO Stanford 4:04.74 6
r:0.62 26.06 55.52 (29.46)
1:27.08 (31.56) 1:59.06 (31.98)
2:33.20 (34.14) 3:08.84 (35.64)
3:36.99 (28.15) 4:04.74 (27.75)
12 Stoll, Campbell JR Texas 4:04.99 5
r:0.66 25.34 54.53 (29.19)
1:26.02 (31.49) 1:56.27 (30.25)
2:30.96 (34.69) 3:06.83 (35.87)
3:36.36 (29.53) 4:04.99 (28.63)
13 Bellard, Hannah JR Michigan 4:05.36 4
r:0.74 25.19 53.84 (28.65)
1:25.88 (32.04) 1:57.66 (31.78)
2:33.10 (35.44) 3:10.15 (37.05)
3:38.54 (28.39) 4:05.36 (26.82)
14 Kozan, Justina SR USC 4:05.42 3
r:0.67 26.27 56.74 (30.47)
1:28.55 (31.81) 2:00.04 (31.49)
2:34.76 (34.72) 3:10.62 (35.86)
3:38.71 (28.09) 4:05.42 (26.71)
15 Macaulay, Mary JR UNC 4:05.61 2
r:0.71 26.21 55.50 (29.29)
1:26.78 (31.28) 1:57.80 (31.02)
2:32.29 (34.49) 3:07.16 (34.87)
3:36.38 (29.22) 4:05.61 (29.23)
16 Tiltmann, Reese JR Indiana 4:06.02 1
r:0.73 27.09 57.36 (30.27)
1:28.98 (31.62) 2:00.08 (31.10)
2:34.49 (34.41) 3:08.97 (34.48)
3:37.64 (28.67) 4:06.02 (28.38)
