NCAA Championships, Day 3 Prelims: Gretchen Walsh Knocks 14-Hundredths Off 100 Fly Record
Her first individual final of the 2025 NCAA Championships left Gretchen Walsh frustrated. She finished 12-hundredths off her own American, NCAA and U.S. Open records in the 50 freestyle, blaming poor execution of her race plan as the reason she fell short of her best time. But one hour later, Walsh got back on record-breaking pace when she led off the University of Virginia’s 200 freestyle relay, clocking 20.37 to tie her top mark from last year.
It took only 14 hours for the superstar senior to resume her record-breaking ways. In the opening event of Friday’s prelims, Walsh exploded through her 100 butterfly race and swam the fastest time ever at 47.21. She was out in 21.86 and back in 25.35 in the swim, beating her heat by almost four seconds while clipping 14-hundredths off the previous top mark she set at the Tennessee Invitational in November.
Walsh also beat her own NCAA Championships record of 47.42 from last year’s NCAA Championships, and it is within the realm of possibility that Walsh could lower the record further in the final, perhaps even becoming the first swimmer to clock a 46-second 100 fly. Already, she is a whopping 1.25 seconds ahead of any other performer in history, with former UVA teammate Kate Douglass ranked No. 2 all-time at 48.46.
The final will mark the first 100 fly race in any format between Walsh and Torri Huske since the 100-meter Olympic final, a race in which Huske ran down Walsh for gold by four hundredths. Coming off a win in the 200 IM Thursday evening for the first NCAA title of her career, Huske won her heat in 50.19 for the third-best mark of the morning, but she faces a massive uphill battle to catch Walsh in the Virginia swimmer’s preferred short course yards format. Huske could join Walsh in 47-second territory in the evening session.
Texas’ Emma Sticklen, last year’s runnerup behind Walsh, had the only other sub-50 performance in the morning as she clocked 49.76. Sticklen is the two-time defending national champion in the 200 fly, and she was a finalist in the 200 IM Thursday, pushing Huske on the front half before falling back down the stretch. Sticklen was joined in the A-final by Texas teammate Abby Arens, who qualified sixth in 50.81. Texas did have a setback here, though, with 2024 third-place finisher Olivia Bray falling to 18th (51.53).
Louisville put two swimmers into the A-final with Ella Welch taking fourth (50.72) and Gabi Albiero coming in seventh (50.96). Indiana’s Mirada Grana was fifth (50.79) while Florida’s Olivia Peoples became the first Gators swimmer to make an A-final by qualifying eighth in 51.02, three hundredths ahead of Pitt’s Sophie Yendell (51.05). It took a time of 51.35 to make it back, with Stanford’s Gigi Johnson the last qualifier for the consolation heat.
Event 8 Women 100 Yard Butterfly
==================================================================
NCAA: N 47.35 11/21/2024Gretchen Walsh, Virginia
Meet: M 47.42 3/22/2024 Gretchen Walsh, Virginia
American: A 47.35 11/21/2024Gretchen Walsh, Virginia
US Open: O 47.35 11/21/2024Gretchen Walsh, Virginia
Name Year School Seed Prelims
==================================================================
=== Preliminaries ===
1 Walsh, Gretchen SR Virginia 47.35 47.21N
r:+0.74 9.93 21.86 (11.93)
34.39 (12.53) 47.21 (12.82)
2 Sticklen, Emma 5Y Texas 49.40 49.76
r:+0.65 10.74 23.15 (12.41)
36.27 (13.12) 49.76 (13.49)
3 Huske, Torri JR Stanford 48.52 50.19
r:+0.60 10.45 23.05 (12.60)
36.31 (13.26) 50.19 (13.88)
4 Welch, Ella JR Louisville 50.74 50.72
r:+0.62 10.71 23.62 (12.91)
37.03 (13.41) 50.72 (13.69)
5 Grana, Miranda SO Indiana 50.80 50.79
r:+0.69 11.15 23.89 (12.74)
37.16 (13.27) 50.79 (13.63)
6 Arens, Abby 5Y Texas 51.01 50.81
r:+0.65 10.77 23.63 (12.86)
36.93 (13.30) 50.81 (13.88)
7 Albiero, Gabi 5Y Louisville 51.18 50.96
r:+0.65 11.08 24.01 (12.93)
37.42 (13.41) 50.96 (13.54)
8 Peoples, Olivia SR Florida 50.96 51.02
r:+0.64 10.87 24.06 (13.19)
37.14 (13.08) 51.02 (13.88)
