The Virginia swim and dive team had an impressive showing this weekend at the Aquatic & Fitness Center as the Hoos won three of four meets against NC State and North Carolina. The Hoos set four pool records as the women’s team swept the dual meets, while the men’s team got a win against UNC.
It was the Cavalier seniors’ final home dual meet in the AFC, which made for an emotional weekend. Seniors Alex Walsh and Noah Nichols said they are happy with the team’s performance and how they’ve progressed throughout the regular season, and believe the Wahoos will continue to build momentum as they are now a month out from the ACC Championships.
The top ranked women’s team unsurprisingly displayed a dominant performance in its home pool. The Hoos won against No. 8 NC State 265.5 to 87.5 and also against UNC 272.5 to 80.5.
During the two-day tri meet, UVA junior Gretchen Walsh continued to make history. On Friday, she swam the fastest 50 free split in history (20.19) in the 200 free relay. This 200 free relay of Jasmine Noncentini, Walsh, Maxine Parker, and Carly Novelline set one of the four pool records this weekend with a time of 1:26.47. That same day, Walsh also set the pool record in the 100 back with a time of 48.77 in the opening leg of the 400 Medley Relay.
On Saturday, Gretchen added more strong performances. She won the 100 free with a pool record time of 46.40. She also posted the fastest 50 fly split in history with a mark of 21.50 in her leg of the 200 Medley Relay.
“I felt really good going into this weekend,” Walsh said. “I look forward to this meet a lot because it’s the senior meet, all of the alumni come back, my parents are here, it’s a really great sense of community. The energy levels were really high which I definitely fed off of. Coming into the meet, I knew I was in a pretty good spot coming off winter training. I’ve been going times I have never gone before and I knew I was going to be fast, but I still surprised myself this weekend and that is something I don’t always get to say so it is really exciting.”
Much like her sister, Alex Walsh was also happy with her individual performance as well as the Virginia team’s showing.
“I am really happy,” Alex Walsh said. “For my 400 IM I was pretty thrilled with the time, I was pretty close to my best time and it’s my best in season so I felt really confident today. Honestly, my mentality going into the meet was just to have fun and enjoy myself with it being senior weekend. I still think I put up some solid times and as a whole our team showed a lot of momentum. The hope is that will translate into a lot of successful swims at ACCs.”
The fast swims were also accompanied by emotions as the seniors swam their final dual meet in the AFC.
Alex Walsh said: “There were definitely a lot of emotions going into this meet. One of my friends Sophia Wilson had her last ever race, so I definitely was super emotional and shedding some tears before the 400 IM so I kept telling myself ‘Ah get it together,’ but I am just so grateful and although I am happy with my swims I am really trying not to worry too much. I am really just soaking up every moment in the AFC because it really has been an honor to be on this team so
I really am excited for these next couple of months.”
As for the men’s team, the Wahoos walked away from this weekend beating UNC 222 to 131, but falling to the No. 8 NC State team 244 to 109. Overall, the team remained incredibly happy with its swims. Senior Noah Nichols had two impressive swims this weekend, as he won the 100 and 200 breast.
“I felt pretty good going into the weekend, we’ve done some really hard but really good training,” Nichols said. “A lot of the training we do makes these races feel a lot more comfortable. Doing that hard stuff in practice makes racing it all the more better and doing it against some really good teams like NC State and UNC. We’re training against ourselves and against really good talent so that is always a lot of fun.”
Although he is excited for his individual results, Nichols is also optimistic about his team going into championship season.
“The men’s performance just keeps getting better and better,” Nichols said. “We’re getting buried in practice and week by week you just see a lot of progression on the team so it makes me really excited going into ACCs and NCAAs.”
Virginia coach Todd DeSorbo was content with both the men and women’s results, and believes there is more speed to be found within the upcoming weeks as the Hoos aim to make a statement in their championship season.
“We’re letting the season build on itself and see if we can [be] faster and faster and kind of catapult into our championship season,” DeSorbo said. “I would have to double check the stats but yesterday around 70% of our men were swimming the fastest they have all season in a dual meet and our women were pretty similar. Overall, we accomplished what we set out to do. At this point they are swimming really well, we just want to fine tune the execution of our races and
that will set them up well for the rest of the season.”
The Hoos have approximately four weeks until the ACC Championships in Greensboro, N.C., from Feb. 20-24, and are excited about their progression as they prepare for the coming weeks. Their next meet is a Virginia intersquad meet Feb. 9-11, where they aim to put up more fast times to build confidence going into their championship season.
Great summary Izzie. NBC needs u!