NCAA Women’s Championships: Bella Sims Wins First Individual NCAA Title in 500 Free, Gators Go 1-2 With Emma Weyant

Bella Sims (right) with University of Florida teammate Emma Weyant -- Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick

NCAA Women’s Championships: Bella Sims Wins First Individual NCAA Title in 500 Free, Gators Go 1-2 With Emma Weyant

In three years of swimming in major competitions, no one has ever accused Bella Sims of swimming timidly. As an unknown 16-year-old, she qualified for an Olympic team while swimming in lane one in the Olympic Trials final of the 200-meter freestyle. In her first major final, thrust into anchor duty on the U.S. women’s 800 free relay at the World Championships, Sims produced the fastest swim of her career by two seconds while pulling away for an upset gold medal. Same story one year later as Sims raced in her first individual finals at a World Championships.

“Definitely my training gives me a lot of confidence in that situation and just being able to trust myself and be able to know that I can do that,” Sims said. “I just know what works for me, and just trusting myself plays a big role in that.”

Now, in her first NCAA Championships, Sims’ approach has brought the University of Florida Gators two national titles and a lead in the team competition, albeit at a very early point in the meet. She blasted out in front on the Gators’ 800 free relay Wednesday night before teammates Isabel Ivey, Emma Weyant and Micayla Cronk pulled away for a win. And in the first individual final of the meet, Sims jumped on top of the field right away on the way to her first collegiate national title.

Sims was a full second ahead of the field after 100 yards, and the lead reached two-and-a-half seconds by the halfway point. The win came into question slightly down the stretch as Weyant began to close in, out-splitting Sims by several tenths on each 50-yard segment for the second half of the race, but Sims never surrendered her bodylength advantage. A strong final 50 put the freshman into the wall in 4:32.47, winning the event by 1.23 seconds.

Sims was already the fourth-fastest performer ever in the 500 free entering her college career, having recorded a time of 4:28.64 at the 2022 Winter Junior Nationals, and she in fact did not bring her best form in the event to this final. But she secured a critical 20 points for the Gators while teammate Weyant added 17 more, touching the wall in 4:33.70 for second place.

“I’m super pleased with that. Obviously there’s more work to be done, but my goal was just to be as consistent as I possibly could, and I think I did that,” Sims said. “I know how (Weyant) swims. I try to swim my own race because I feel like if I focus on other people, it kind of stresses me out, and that’s not going to have me. But having her by my side pushes me and helps me a lot.”

At her first NCAA Championships, Sims finds herself as the most valuable swimmer on a Florida team gunning for its first top-five finish in 14 years, and she is thriving in the competitive team-first environment.

“I kind of like this environment. Everyone knows each other, and they know what they go through and everything, so it just makes it easier for everyone to have each other’s back,” Sims said. “I feel like (the coaches) don’t want to give us an expectation just so we don’t stress out about that and have anxiety about what they want. They just want us to have fun and do our best.”

Indiana’s Anna Peplowski, who previously clocked 1:41.16 leading off the Hoosiers’ 800 free relay Wednesday evening, came in third at 4:34.06. Peplowski was in second place early on before falling off the pace, but she closed in 26.32 to move ahead of Stanford’s Aurora Roghair by two tenths. Roghair ended up fourth (4:34.26).

The event was significantly quicker than in previous seasons. After last year’s cutoff times for qualification were 4:39.51 for the A-final and 4:40.81 for the B-final, the standards this year were 4:37.40 and 4:38.87, respectively. In 2023, Alabama’s Kensey McMahon swam a time of 4:36.62, a mark that five swimmers comfortably surpassed in the A-final, including Virginia freshman Cavan Gormsen (4:35.37). In the B-final, top finishers Katie Crom (Michigan, 4:36.27) and Hayden Miller (Texas A&M, 4:36.60) also beat the 2023 winning time.

Event 3  Women 500 Yard Freestyle
=========================================================================
         NCAA: N 4:24.06  3/16/2017 Katie Ledecky, Stanford
         Meet: M 4:24.06  3/16/2017 Katie Ledecky, Stanford
     American: A 4:24.06  3/16/2017 Katie Ledecky, Stanford
      US Open: O 4:24.06  3/16/2017 Katie Ledecky, Stanford
         Pool: P 4:30.85  12/4/2015 Leah Smith, Virginia
    Name                 Year School            Prelims     Finals Points 
=========================================================================
                       === Championship Final ===                        
 
  1 Sims, Bella            FR Florida           4:35.01    4:32.47   20  
    r:+0.56  23.98        50.61 (26.63)
        1:17.69 (27.08)     1:45.40 (27.71)
        2:13.05 (27.65)     2:41.03 (27.98)
        3:08.93 (27.90)     3:36.93 (28.00)
        4:05.03 (28.10)     4:32.47 (27.44)
  2 Weyant, Emma           JR Florida           4:34.32    4:33.70   17  
    r:+0.78  25.12        52.26 (27.14)
        1:19.81 (27.55)     1:47.67 (27.86)
        2:15.48 (27.81)     2:43.45 (27.97)
        3:10.75 (27.30)     3:38.39 (27.64)
        4:06.27 (27.88)     4:33.70 (27.43)
  3 Peplowski, Anna        JR Indiana           4:34.72    4:34.06   16  
    r:+0.75  24.75        51.60 (26.85)
        1:19.34 (27.74)     1:47.51 (28.17)
        2:15.51 (28.00)     2:43.77 (28.26)
        3:12.06 (28.29)     3:40.10 (28.04)
        4:07.74 (27.64)     4:34.06 (26.32)
  4 Roghair, Aurora        JR Stanford          4:35.34    4:34.26   15  
    r:+0.79  25.80        53.19 (27.39)
        1:20.95 (27.76)     1:48.78 (27.83)
        2:16.47 (27.69)     2:44.13 (27.66)
        3:11.68 (27.55)     3:39.23 (27.55)
        4:06.80 (27.57)     4:34.26 (27.46)
  5 Gormsen, Cavan         FR Virginia          4:36.07    4:35.37   14  
    r:+0.69  25.75        53.38 (27.63)
        1:20.74 (27.36)     1:48.25 (27.51)
        2:16.00 (27.75)     2:43.66 (27.66)
        3:11.41 (27.75)     3:39.27 (27.86)
        4:07.73 (28.46)     4:35.37 (27.64)
  6 McCulloh, Abby         JR Georgia           4:36.40    4:37.13   13  
    r:+0.71  25.38        52.73 (27.35)
        1:20.49 (27.76)     1:48.52 (28.03)
        2:16.64 (28.12)     2:44.82 (28.18)
        3:13.06 (28.24)     3:41.45 (28.39)
        4:09.74 (28.29)     4:37.13 (27.39)
  7 Stege, Rachel          JR Georgia           4:37.40    4:37.26   12  
    r:+0.75  25.91        53.60 (27.69)
        1:21.34 (27.74)     1:49.29 (27.95)
        2:17.30 (28.01)     2:45.38 (28.08)
        3:13.72 (28.34)     3:41.97 (28.25)
        4:10.28 (28.31)     4:37.26 (26.98)
  8 Coetzee, Dune          JR Georgia           4:36.27    4:40.08   11  
    r:+0.69  26.01        53.66 (27.65)
        1:21.49 (27.83)     1:49.71 (28.22)
        2:17.96 (28.25)     2:46.39 (28.43)
        3:14.70 (28.31)     3:43.20 (28.50)
        4:11.96 (28.76)     4:40.08 (28.12)

Name*

Email*

Welcome to our community. We invite you to join our discussion. Our community guidelines are simple: be respectful and constructive, keep on topic, and support your fellow commenters. Commenting signifies that you agree to our Terms of Use