Gretchen Walsh Notches Historic Performances as Virginia Sweeps Texas in ‘Super Finals’
For the second year in a row, two of the top programs in college swimming set up the opening night of their two-day dual meet as a made-for-fans experience, and this year, more than 1200 fans were in attendance in Charlottesville, Va., for this clash between the Virginia Cavaliers and Texas Longhorns that included one-on-one super finals featuring a single swimmer from each school.
The women’s meet looked like it could a barnburner after Texas placed second to Virginia at the last two NCAA Championships, but instead, Gretchen Walsh swam four stunning performances to lift the three-time defending champion Cavaliers to a dominant 113-71 victory while the Virginia men upset Texas by a 99-89 margin in meet that came down to the final relay.
Walsh, the reigning NCAA champion in the 100 backstroke and 100 freestyle, has developed a knack for throwing down elite times even in dual meets and when racing in a practice suit, as she was Friday evening. Walsh began her evening by leading off Virginia’s 200 medley relay in 22.54, the second-fastest backstroke leadoff ever behind Maggie Mac Neil’s 22.52 from last year’s SEC Championships. Walsh had previously been as quick as 22.65. More importantly, she beat Texas leadoff swimmer Emma Kern by 1.69 seconds to give Virginia a lead it would not relinquish. Jasmine Nocentini, Alex Walsh and Maxine Parker finished off a 1:34.32 win.
Then, the younger Walsh sister followed with a pair of elite individual performances. She clocked 20.95 in the 50 free, just 16-hundredths off Mac Neil’s NCAA and U.S. Open records (20.79) and 12-hundredths shy of Walsh’s own American record (20.83). Mac Neil, Walsh, former UVA great Kate Douglass and Abbey Weitzeil are the only swimmers to ever go faster.
Next up, Walsh dropped a mark of 49.11 in the 100 fly, crushing the Longhorns’ Emma Sticklen by 3.65 seconds in the super final and moving to fourth on the all-time list in the event, trailing only Douglass, Mac Neil and Torri Huske, all of whom swam sub-48 times at last year’s NCAA Championships. Finally, Walsh split 20.78 anchoring Virginia to a dominant 200 free relay win to conclude the session. Nocentini, Aimee Canny, Alex Walsh and Gretchen Walsh combined for a time of 1:26.85 to secure the win.
In other strong Virginia efforts, Nocentini took down Texas veteran Anna Elendt to win the 100 breast super final, clocking 58.19 to Elendt’s 58.78 while Alex Walsh recorded a time of 53.21 to dominate the 100 IM.
The Texas women had plenty of standout performances in the meet, even if they did not have enough to match up to Virginia’s star power. Erin Gemmell grabbed a pair of wins, clocking a swift 1:44.64 for the win in the 200 free and 4:42.66 in the 500 free. Gemmell trailed Virginia freshman Cavan Gormsen by more than one second with 100 meters remaining before coming home in 55.39 to pull ahead by 24-hundredths at the finish.
Gemmell’s fellow Longhorn freshman Berit Berglund was victorious over Alex Walsh in the 100 back super final, 51.76 to 52.01. Texas’ Bridget O’Neil captured first place in 1-meter diving (333.23).
The men’s meet saw Virginia upset the powerhouse Longhorns, who have won 15 national titles under legendary head coach Eddie Reese and finished among the top-three teams at every NCAA Championships since 2008. The meet was tied at 89 heading into the last relay before the team of Connor Boyle, Tim Connery, Sebastien Sergile and Simon Lins beat out the Texas team of Nate Germonprez, Camden Taylor, Peter Paulus and Luke Hobson by a 1:20.39-to-1:20.75 margin.
The Virginia men also got the better of Texas in the 200 medley relay, with Will Cole, Noah Nichols, Connery and Boyle clocking 1:26.96 to Texas’ 1:27.61. Nichols was less than one week removed from winning 100-meter breast silver at the Pan American Games, and in his return to college racing, he picked up a big win in the yards version of the event, beating Germonprez 52.39 to 53.67 in the super final. Also for UVA, Boyle won the 50 free in 19.97, and Kamal Muhammad dominated the 100 fly with his time of 47.43.
As for the Longhorns, the reigning NCAA champion in the 200 and 500 free did his thing as Hobson won both of those events, clocking 1:35.96 to narrowly hold off Sergile (1:36.02) over eight laps and then 4:27.33 to win over 20. Will Modglin won the 100 back in 47.16 while Germonprez captured the 100 IM win in 48.45 and Nick Harris led a 1-2-3-4 finish for Texas in 3-meter diving with his score of 416.40.
Virginia and Texas are not done racing for the weekend, with day two of their dual scheduled for Saturday morning, with diving at 9 a.m. and swimming at 11 a.m.
How is 1:44.64 in the 200 free ‘swift’? The likes of Stephanie Elkins were faster nearly half a century ago!
I think your memory is faulty. As of 1985 the NCAA record in 200 free was 1:45.47 set by Mary Beth Linzmeier in 1984. 1:44.64 at an October dual meet in a practice suit is most definitely ‘swift’.
You might want recheck your facts. In the 1980’s, 1:44.64 would have been the NCAA record, and it still would have been good enough to win NCAAs until at least 2003. And this was a very early season dual meet.