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Katharine Berkoff, Isabel Ivey Post Spectacular Relay Splits, Hint at Special Individual Swims to Come
Last season, Katharine Berkoff recorded the best performance of her life at the NCAA Championships as she captured her first NCAA title in the 100 backstroke. Isabel Ivey, meanwhile, has never finished higher than third place in an individual event at the NCAA Championships. But as the NCAA Women’s Championships began with relay action Wednesday evening, both swimmers recorded performances that suggest big things to come in their individual events later in the week, Berkoff as she attempts to defend her title against one of the strongest fields in college swimming history and Ivey in an event she is racing for the first time on the NCAA level.
First off was Berkoff, who led off NC State’s 200 medley relay in 22.76, good enough to beat Virginia freshman Gretchen Walsh by five hundredths on the opening split — and good enough for the fastest women’s 50 backstroke leadoff leg in history. Berkoff was just ahead of the previous best effort, the 22.82 that Walsh recorded at the ACC Championships last month, but she was a half-second faster than she swam on the leadoff leg at last year’s NCAA Championships.
Berkoff’s Wolfpack squad was actually the defending NCAA champions in the 200 medley relay, and while they finished second to rival Virginia this time around, the group was quicker than their 2021 effort. For Berkoff in particular, the effort was especially promising. In 2021, she was the only swimmer to break 50 in the 100 back final, but three are entered with sub-50 efforts this season: American-record holder Regan Smith, Berkoff and Walsh. Alabama’s Rhyan White, who placed fourth at the Olympics in both the 100 and 200-meter back, also is looming.
Smith is the top seed at 49.23, a time just seven hundredths off her own record, but Berkoff’s performance on the relay combined with a 49.41 lifetime best in the 100 back at the ACC Championships last month suggest that this 21-year-old from Missoula, Mont., could have a chance at challenging the 49-second barrier in the individual event Friday evening. Berkoff’s success in the 100 back as well as the sprint freestyle events and relays will be paramount as NC State is seeking to match last year’s program-best second-place finish.
Just over an hour later, it was Ivey’s turn to impress the fans at the McAuley Aquatic Center in Atlanta as she led off the Golden Bears’ 800 free relay in 1:41.35. Racing head-to-head with Stanford’s Torri Huske, Ivey opened up a strong lead before the halfway point and never let Huske close the gap. She ended up with a time that clobbered her lifetime best by more than a second and moved Ivey up the all-time list into ninth place, one spot ahead of former Cal superstar Dana Vollmer (although the Bears’ team record still belongs to Missy Franklin).
Ivey raced past the 1:41.93 that Lia Thomas swam in December for the top spot in the national rankings, and the effort was quicker than any college swimmer since 2019, when Mallory Comerford and future Olympic silver medalist Siobhan Haughey were both in their final year of college swimming and Ruck was in her first season of college swimming before she missed the next two while preparing for the Tokyo Olympics.
Cal ended up finishing third in the 800 free relay, dropping two spots and more than four seconds from their entry time. Previously, Cal had also improved two spots in the 200 medley relay. The Bears have been a perennial top-five program under head coach Teri McKeever, but Cal actually was seeded to finish ninth at this year’s championships, so more drops will be necessary for any hopes of continuing that run of success.
And yes, seriously, Ivey has never swum the 200 free at the NCAA Championships. Like Berkoff, Ivey did not come to the NCAA Championships as the headliner in the 200 free. Most of the discussion on that event centered around Thomas, whose presence as a transgender athlete has stirred extensive controversy over fairness. Ruck, too, will certainly be in the mix. But after that spectacular relay effort, it would be no surprise if Ivey ends up walking away from the 200 free with her first individual NCAA title.
