TheSabre.com Fan Friday: Virginia Women’s Swimming Chasing Magical Repeat

By: Kris Wright |

Virginia fans are no strangers to National Championships. After all, different teams have brought home 29 different titles to UVA. All of those teams are obviously elite. Every now and then a team does something magical, though.

Hoo fans even have witnessed some of those teams. The men’s soccer program put together a four-peat. The men’s tennis team won three in a row. The 2004 women’s lacrosse team won the final 10 games to claim the title. The 2006 men’s lacrosse team posted a perfect 17-0 record to take the crown.

The Wahoos are putting together something special right now in women’s swimming and diving. The program captured its first ever National Championship last season when it posted 491 points to best second-place Texas’ 344.5 by nearly 150. UVA tallied five individual titles and a relay title.

Right now in Atlanta, the NCAA Championships are roughly halfway done and it looks like the Cavaliers are about to outdo their own impressive performance from a year ago. After two days, they led Texas by almost 100 points, 210-128. So far, UVA already bested the relay titles from last season with two wins and three individuals have captured the top spot as well.

Plus, in addition to winning events, the Hoos are posting record times too.

Virginia opened the meet with a NCAA title in the 200-yard medley relay with Gretchen Walsh, Alexis Wenger, Lexi Cuomo, and Kate Douglass posting a meet record time of 1:32.16. Here is that swim:

On day two, Alex Walsh won her second straight 200-yard IM NCAA Championship with a 1:50.08 time that set the new American/NCAA/US Open Record in the event. She beat the previous record by .59 seconds. Here is that swim:

Douglass, meanwhile, broke the American Record twice in the same day in the 50-yard freestyle. She first did in the prelim swim in the morning, but then went even lower in the final Thursday night. Douglass recorded a time of 20.84 to win her second straight 50 freestyle NCAA Championship with Gretchen Walsh just behind in second place at 20.95. Douglass set the new American/NCAA/US Open record in the event. Here is that swim:

Stay tuned this weekend to see if the UVA women lift the championship trophy. It would be the 30th National Championship in school history. It would also be just the second women’s team to repeat in Virginia history (cross country 1981 and 1982) and just the fifth Cavalier team to repeat overall (men’s soccer 1991-1994, men’s tennis 2015-2017, men’s lacrosse 2019 and 2021 with a pandemic-canceled season in between).

And with that, let’s check out the weekly Fan Friday picks.

Fan(s) Of The Week

Go Hoos!

Student Fan(s) Of The Week

Cheering on Kihei Clark and the Wahoos.

Feature Photo Of The Week

With 9 assists against Mississippi State, Kihei Clark moved into a tie with Donald Hand for fifth all-time in UVA career assists.