The Virginia women’s swimming and diving team left for Athens, Georgia, as the Hoos look to repeat for their fourth National Championship this week. They start competition Wednesday.
Not only will UVA look to repeat, but there are also NCAA, US Open, American, and Virginia school records up for grabs. The Hoos could achieve this in several events after a strong showing at the ACC Championships saw several records fall as well.
Here is what to look for each day of racing at the NCAA Championships.
Day 1 Events (Wednesday, March 20)
200 Medley Relay: The long week of racing kicks off with the 200 Medley Relay, an event where Virginia is ranked second out of the 21 teams competing. The Hoos are reigning NCAA Champions in this event, and it is the only relay out of five that they are not the top ranked seed. They are behind Ohio State, who has a seed time of 1:33.47, just more than two hundredths of a second faster than Virginia’s 1:33.69. This race is expected to be a battle between Ohio State, Virginia, and Cal, who is just two hundredths of a second slower than UVA’s seed time. The Cavaliers own the NCAA, US Open, and American record in this event with a time of 1:31.73, which was set at the 2023 ACC Championships. It doesn’t appear any team will have the chance to break it, including the Wahoos.
800 Freestyle Relay: Virginia has the opportunity to grab two NCAA titles on the first day. The 200 Medley relay will undoubtedly be a dog fight, but the Hoos are seeded comfortably in first in the 800 Freestyle Relay with a time of 6:46.28. This time is faster than the second seed Florida by more than 3 seconds. Virginia has dominated this relay all season, and are expected to do so again on Wednesday. The NCAA record for this event was set in 2017 by Stanford with a time of 6:45.91, which is not out of reach for the Hoos. This record is the only relay left that is not held by the Virginia women’s program.
Day 2 Notable Events (Thursday, March 21)
500 Freestyle: Sophomore Aimee Canny is seeded sixth in the 500 Free, but has the opportunity to place much higher. She is within a second of the fourth and fifth seeds, but is roughly 2 seconds off from the three seed. In order to earn top three, Canny will have to pull out a big drop in time.
200 Individual Medley: Alex Walsh seems to be in a league of her own in the 200 IM. She is seeded first in the event with a time of 1:51.76 and has a comfortable lead. However, this time isn’t close to Walsh’s personal best. At last year’s NCAA Championships, she got third in the event with a time of 1:50.07. Her teammate, Kate Douglass, was the first ever woman to go sub 1:50 in the event to win. Walsh has the opportunity to also break that barrier, and is expected to do so given momentum is on her side. She had a big ACC Championships, where she broke the 200 Fly NCAA record as well as the 200 Breast. If Walsh is victorious, it will mark the third time she has won this event.
50 Freestyle: Gretchen Walsh has smashed record after record this year, and the 50 Free is no exception. At ACCs she was the first woman ever to go sub-20 seconds in her leg of the 200 Free relay. She also broke the NCAA record in the individual event with a time of 20.57. She’s the expected winner here. Virginia teammate Jasmine Nocentini is seeded behind her with a time of 21.13.
200 Freestyle relay: Similar to the other relays, Virginia is comfortably seeded first in the 200 Freestyle relay and set the NCAA record in this event just a few weeks ago at the 2024 ACC Championships. What seems to be the only competition based on seed times for Virginia in this event is the clock – can the Hoos re-break their own NCAA, US Open, American, and Virginia records?
Day 3 Notable Events (Friday, March 22)
400 Individual Medley: Similar to the 200 IM, Alex Walsh is also expected to take home the crown in this event. She is seeded first with a time of 4:00.52, but former Hoo teammate Emma Weyant is about half a second behind her. Weyant transferred from Virginia to Florida after her first year so this matchup is nothing new to Walsh.
100 Butterfly: Gretchen Walsh enters comfortably sitting in first in the 100 Fly. She holds the NCAA, US Open, American, and Virginia records. She has a 2-second advantage over the second place seed and will ultimately attempt to re-break her records.
100 Breastroke: Jasmine Nocentini looks to make some noise this championship, as she is currently seeded third in the 100 Breast with a time of 57.01. The top three seeds all have put up relatively close times, and the medals appear to all be up for grabs.
400 Medley Relay: Virginia has a comfortable 2-second lead over second ranked Tennessee. The Hoos even have the opportunity to re-break their NCAA, US Open, American, and Virginia records as they are less than a second from that time.
Day 4 Notable Events: (Saturday, March 23; Final Day)
100 Freestyle: Like many other events, Gretchen Walsh has owned the 100 Free this year. She broke the NCAA, US Open, American, and Virginia record with a time of 45.16. She broke it just a few weeks ago at the ACC Championships, and looks to smash it again this Saturday.
200 Backstroke: Senior Reilly Tiltmann is seeded fifth in this event, the highest she’s ever been ranked going into this long championship weekend. Tiltmann not only has the opportunity to reach the A-Final, but she also could earn her first top three finish at NCAAs. Places one through six are all closely contested, though, and all the medals are up for grabs.
400 Freestyle Relay: The Hoos are ranked first in the 400 Free Relay, but not by as much as you might think. They only have a .66 advantage over the second seeded team in Florida. Like most of the other relays, the Hoos also own this NCAA record, but it does not seem like they will re-break it this weekend as they enter about 2 seconds off that pace.
If all goes as planned, the Hoos will be untouchable for this championship. The psych sheets project Virginia as approximately a 100-point favorite. The Walsh sisters have been dominant throughout the entirety of this season, and are expected to have big time drops and broken records this weekend. Additionally, Nocentini has been a huge pick up for the Hoos this year, and has been able to fit in with big swims.
The Championship will be streamed on ESPN+. Prelims begin every day at 10 a.m. and the finals begin at 6 p.m.
Finals this evening (Wednesday) are at 5:15pm, not 6pm.
Where are you seeing that it starts at 5:15 PM? ESPN+, SwimSwam, ncaa.com, and Meet Mobile all show 6 PM EST.