Wahoowa! Virginia Women’s Swimming & Diving Captures First National Title

By: Chris Horne |
The University of Virginia women’s swimming & diving team captured the 2021 National Championship in convincing fashion. Photo courtesy Mike Comer/NCAA Photos via Getty Images

COVID-19 kept the University of Virginia women’s swimming & diving team from competing for the program’s first ever national title in 2020. The Cavalier women settled for an ACC Championship in which they posted the highest conference championship point total in school history. One year later, the Hoos, once again ACC champions, were able to test their talents again the nation’s best. On Saturday (March 20), they won the 2021 National Championship.

Virginia posted 491 points this week in Greensboro (N.C.), 137 points better than second-place NC State. Texas, California, and Alabama round out the top five.

“The women have been on a mission for two years, since the 2019 NCAAs and since last year got canceled,” said Virginia head coach Todd DeSorbo, who has guided the UVA women’s swim & dive team to three ACC titles and now a National Championship since being hired in August of 2017. In addition to this being UVA’s first swimming national title (men or women), this is also the first women’s swimming title in ACC history.

“They’ve been on a mission all year and have just been grinding and excited for it, and they just performed at a really high level all week,” DeSorbo continued. “It’s just a really exciting time for our program and our conference.”

When announcing Virginia as the national champions, the announcer used the word “dominated” to describe the Cavalier victory. That seems to be an appropriate description as UVA led all four days of the event. The Hoos kicked off the 2021 NCAA Championship with a victory in the 800 Free Relay on opening night, resulting in a 40-34 lead over Kentucky. UVA extended its lead on Day 2 by winning three individual events and placing second in both the 200 Free Relay and 400 Medley Relay races.

Virginia rolled from there. Senior Paige Madden captured two more individual titles the final two days of competition, winning the 200 Free on Friday and the 1650 Free on Saturday to go along with her victory in the 500 Free on Wednesday. The Hoos also secured six second place finishes – four individual races and two relays – on Friday and Saturday to help solidify the team championship win.

Virginia had at least one swimmer in the championship final of every individual event. The Hoos had two swimmers make the final in three events and three swimmers reach the final of one event, the 200 Breast.

“That was tremendous,” DeSorbo said of his team having at least one swimmer in the championship final of every individual race. “That was a personal goal as a coach that I had for the program that I did not share with the women until after the Friday evening finals. Putting somebody in the A final in every single event is pretty impressive. It just shows overall depth. I think it takes a full team. It takes a full team to win a national title. These ladies brought it every minute every day. It was exciting for ‘em.”

Madden, who told Swimming World Magazine Managing Editor Dan D’Addona that last year’s cancellation was “heartbreaking” but also “fueled a fire” throughout the team, led all swimmers with the three individual championships. Sophomore Kate Douglass captured the 50 Free title, finished second in both the 100 Fly and the 100 Free, and swam in four of the five relay events (the 800 Free being the exception), all second-place finishes. Freshman Alex Walsh captured the 200 Individual Medley title while finishing fifth in both the 200 Free and 200 Breast. Sophomore Ella Nelson recorded two second-place finishes – the 400 Individual Medley and the 200 Breast – and a fifth-place result in the 200 Individual Medley. Madden, Nelson, and Walsh joined senior Kyla Valls on the national champion 800 Free Relay team.

Other top 8 (championship final) individual results included …

– Junior Alexis Wenger earned third place in the 100 Breast and seventh in the 200 Breast.

– Freshman Reilly Tiltmann finished fifth in the 200 Back.

– Freshman Abby Harter finished sixth in the 200 Fly.

– Senior Caroline Gmelich finished eighth in the 100 Back.

– Sophomore Lexi Cuomo finished eighth in the 100 Fly.

Capturing a national championship in the midst of a pandemic made this week even more impressive to their head coach.

“I’m entirely in awe of our women and what they’ve done,” DeSorbo said. “Their discipline and commitment to COVID protocols and staying healthy, on top of training at an elite level and competing at an elite level. I could not have asked for anything more. Honestly, I’m really at a loss for words for what they’ve accomplished this year.”

3 Responses You are logged in as Test

  2. WaaaHooooo Ladies, love to join you in a certain form of diving. Signed, M.C.P. 😉

  3. Very impressive. I don’t think most can realize how tough this was. Total team effort by superstars.

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