Virginia Women’s Swimming/Diving Team Eyes Repeat National Championship

Virginia celebrated the 2021 title.
The Virginia women’s swimming/diving team won its first National Championship last year. ~ Photo courtesy Mike Comer/NCAA Photos via Getty Images

The Virginia women’s swimming and diving team joined a short list of winners for the National Championship last year when it became just the ninth different school to take the title. Now the Hoos are looking to climb into more rarefied air as the 2022 event begins.

The NCAA meet starts Wednesday night at Georgia Tech’s McAuley Aquatic Center where the Wahoos are considered the favorites to lift the trophy again. Of the nine schools to win the title, six have more than one championship so there’s that part of the sports’ landscape nationally to chase.

Closer to home, the Cavaliers can join a small group of repeat National Championship winners at UVA. The women’s cross country (1981-1982) men’s soccer (1991, 1992, 1993, 1994), and men’s tennis (2015, 2016, 2017) are the only teams to win titles in consecutive years, while the men’s lacrosse team went back to back in 2019 and 2021 with a pandemic canceled season sandwiched in between.

Virginia coach Todd DeSorbo told the team to simply focus on continued consistency, which led to a third straight ACC Championship last month.

“I just keep telling the team, if they can just be as good, if not better, than what they’ve done in the past, then they’re going to be fine,” DeSorbo said. “If we just match what we did at ACCs, we’ll challenge for a national title, and I tell the team, both men and women, things like this all the time: If you go your best time and you get beat, then more power to the person who beat you, because they probably just broke the record. Same thing with the overall team competition. … We’re gonna make it hard on people, and at the end of the day, if our girls perform at the level they’re capable of and they end up not winning the meet, then the other team is definitely deserving of that.”

The Hoos certainly have the firepower to contend for the repeat. They, of course, have three Olympic medalists ready to compete in Kate Douglass, Alex Walsh, and Emma Weyant. Douglass and Walsh each won three events at the ACC meet last month with Walsh taking home Most Valuable Swimmer honors, while Weyant was among three other Cavaliers to claim an individual event win. That trio also helps strengthen some of the relay teams and UVA set three American Records in relays at the conference meet.

In other words, Virginia can count on pulling in some points. To bring home another National Championship, however, it will take more than that trio. The reason UVA is the favorite, however, is because there is a lot of depth around Douglass, Walsh, and Weyant.

The Hoos qualified 14 swimmers (freshmen Ella Bathurst, Gretchen Walsh and Emma Weyant; sophomores Abby Harter, Anna Keating, Reilly Tiltmann, Alex Walsh and Sophia Wilson; juniors Lexi Cuomo, Maddie Donohoe, Kate Douglass and Ella Nelson; and seniors Jessica Nava and Alexis Wenger) and 3 divers (freshman Lizzy Kaye and juniors Jennifer Bell and Charlotte Bowen) for the National Championship meet. Many of the upperclassmen already have All-American honors on their resumes from a year ago where they helped the team take the title, while the freshmen will be in that mix this time around.

“Every one of them could and we hope will score points for the team and even to just score one point at NCAAs is a monumental accomplishment,” DeSorbo said. “It’s arguably one of the fastest meets in the world every year. … Alexis Wenger, she’s one of the fastest breaststrokers in the history of the NCAA. … She’s on our American Record setting relays for both medley relays. … Lexi Cuomo’s another one – she’s on our American Record setting 200 medley relay and 200 free relay and a great sprint freestyler and butterflier for our team. A great leader, a hard worker, and she’ll score quite a few points for the team as well. … They’re two of our leaders, two of our hard workers. … Jessie Nava is another one. She’s a fourth year, senior captain for us. An All-American last year in the 100 butterfly and she won ACC’s last year in the 200 butterfly so hoping she can score in both of those this year. She has been and will continue to be a great leader for us.”

“Anna Keating and Abby Harter are probably a little bit lesser known as well, but certainly can score big points for us at NCAA’s,” DeSorbo continued. “Abby scored last year in the 200 butterfly. Anna’s a great breaststroker that’s been improving quite a bit over the two years she’s been here. … And we’ve got some great opportunities for divers to score this year as well. Lizzy Kaye is a first year and she’s probably one of the best freshmen in the country. I don’t think we’ve ever had a female score points at NCAA’s in diving. We’ve got three qualified and our zone this year was a bit more challenging to make NCAA’s out of than it has been the past so I think that bodes well for their potential to score.”

From the qualifying list, Douglass, Ella Nelson, Tiltmann, Alex Walsh, Gretchen Walsh, Wenger, and Weyant are all capable of bringing home individual titles in some events. Douglass, Nelson, Alex Walsh, and Wenger all have top 3 finishes at the NCAA meet under their belts already from a year ago. The Hoos will also be strong in the relays again.

The lesser known names perhaps to casual UVA fans are what makes Virginia a title threat. The Cavaliers get steady high-level contributions up and down the roster and it puts pressure on other teams to match it.

“It’s going to take all of them to win,” DeSorbo said. “Our Olympians certainly will boost the score but they can’t carry a team to a title. I think last year we had 10 girls score at NCAA’s. It’s going to take all of them. Not just the top end, but it will take your depth as well.”

1 Responses You are logged in as Test

  1. The REAL REASON our swimmers are so excellent is because geniuses in our hospital mixed their human DNA with a certain fish DNA, yielding a group of aquatic national champions. Here is a dictionary definition:

    “Wahoo: a large predatory tropical marine fish of the mackerel family, prized as a game fish.
    Acanthocybium solanderi, family Scombridae.”

    Q.E.D.

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