Gretchen Walsh Swims Second-Fastest 200 Freestyle in History as Virginia Women Crush 800 Free Relay NCAA Record
The University of Virginia women have overhauled the college swimming record books over the last four seasons. Individually, Gretchen Walsh holds four NCAA records while Kate Douglass has two and Alex Walsh and Claire Curzan one apiece. The Cavaliers have repeatedly set records in the 200 and 400-yard freestyle and medley relays, and now they have a clean sweep of relay marks after taking down the U.S. Open and NCAA records in the 800 free relay on night one of the ACC Championships.
On the leadoff leg, Gretchen Walsh came close to adding a fifth individual record to her tally. At last season’s ACC Championships, Walsh became the third-fastest swimmer ever in the 200-yard free while leading off this relay, and she came in Tuesday evening in pursuit of Missy Franklin’s individual record of 1:39.10 set in the same Greensboro, N.C., pool 10 years ago. Walsh fell just short with a time of 1:39.34, but swam the second-fastest time in history.
Walsh joined Franklin and Mallory Comerford as the only swimmers to ever break 1:40 in the event, and naturally, she destroyed the previous top time in the country in the 200 free, Anna Peplowski’s 1:41.63.
After Walsh’s leadoff leg, Virginia was more than two seconds under NCAA-record pace, and her older sister got even further ahead of that clip with a 1:41.87 split on the second leg. Aimee Canny went 1:42.03 on the third leg, and Curzan brought it home in 1:40.89 on the way to a final time of 6:44.13. That obliterated Stanford’s record of 6:45.91 that had stood as the fastest in history since 2017.
Stanford finished second here in 6:51.79. Torri Huske led off in 1:42.52, and teammates Caroline Bricker, Lillie Nordmann and Kayla Wilson all hit 1:43-low splits. Only Virginia, Tennessee and Texas have surpassed that time thus far this season. Cal placed third in 6:55.98 behind a team of Lea Polonsky, Ava Chavez, Mia West and Lilou Ressencourt.
Like Virginia’s foursome here, the Cardinal’s star-studded squad from eight years ago included decorated Olympians and national champions, with individual gold medalists Simone Manuel and Katie Ledecky bookending the squad while Lia Neal, a two-time Olympian, and Ella Eastin, who would win eight individual NCAA titles, swam the middle legs.
Because Canny is from South Africa, Virginia’s time does not count as the American record, and Stanford retains that mark. However, Virginia would surely have beaten that record with a squad of all U.S. swimmers had freshman Anna Moesch, who has a season-best time of 1:43.12 in the 200 free, been in the lineup instead of Canny.
Notably, the Walsh sisters and Curzan would typically have comprised the first three legs of the Cavaliers’ 200 medley relay, which was contested earlier in the session, but they skipped that relay to prepare for a record run in this longer relay.
