NCAA Women’s Championships: Gretchen Walsh Clocks 20.49 to Win 50 Free Title; Curzan Makes it Virginia 1-2
The unstoppable Gretchen Walsh has her seventh individual NCAA title, the latest win marking her second consecutive dominant offering in the 50 freestyle. The Virginia senior was 18-hundredths ahead of the field at the halfway point, a relatively small margin given the scope of Walsh’s dominance in short course sprint events, but she quickly remedied that with a 10.45 closing split that clobbered everyone else.
Walsh was chasing her own American, NCAA and U.S. Open records, which all stand at 20.37 from last year’s NCAA Championships, but she fell 12-hundredths behind that time at 20.49. Still, the mark is the fourth-fastest time ever recorded. Later in the session, Walsh would take another shot at the 50 free record leading off Virginia’s 200 free relay, and she matched her record exactly at 20.37 on the way to a Virginia victory.
“Going into tonight, I knew I had two chances, but I definitely was hoping that I wouldn’t have to take that chance,” Walsh said of her two swims. “I didn’t execute the race the way I planned or talked about or hoped to. Just frustrated with that, but I was really happy that I perfectly executed it the way I wanted to on the relay. It means a lot to me because it shows that I’m in a good spot. I have more to come, and if I can just stick to my plans, things will go my way.”
Unlike most sprinters, Walsh uses the full 15 meters of underwater dolphin kicks off each wall, and in her prelims race, she came close to breaking the surface past the red warning buoy. Walsh admitted that the close call was on her mind in the individual event. Executing her ideal race in the relay “meant not listening to the haters and taking the nine kicks off my start, even though a lot of people think that I should be called for that. Taking the nine kicks because that’s what I always do. Five strokes on the first 25 is what we took it down to. Twelve kicks, we added a kick on my second 25, and then seven strokes.”
Behind Walsh in the individual final, her Virginia teammate Claire Curzan swam a best time of 21.11 to place second while fifth-year swimmer Maxine Parker touched sixth (21.77). That influx of points propelled the Cavaliers from 17 points behind Stanford to a 33-point advantage the time is unlikely to yield for the remainder of the competition.
“50 free, it’s kind of a toss-up,” Curzan said. “You hope for the best, but you can only prepare for the worst. I think I learned a lot from this morning, and I changed a lot that went well. I knew I needed to practice one more start, so I did one in warm-up just to ease the nerves, and I think that was way better in the final. Off the turn, I was a bit too lackadaisical with my underwaters. They were too big, too slow, so just kind of tightening them up. Going fast, you can’t really think. The more you think about it, for me, the worse it gets.”
Third place went to Louisville’s Julia Dennis in 21.20, just ahead of Tennessee’s Camille Spink (21.27).
Two years ago, Walsh was favored to win the NCAA title in the event, only for Maggie Mac Neil to clip her at the finish and steal away the NCAA and U.S. Open records. Since then, though, Walsh has established historic superiority of the two-lap event, with these latest performances latest win giving her the 10 fastest efforts ever recorded (and 12 of the top-14) and a four-tenth advantage on any other swimmer in the all-time rankings.
Walsh’s skill underwater and her pure speed has allowed her to put together one of the all-time best collegiate careers. For the second consecutive year, Walsh is considered a near-lock to finish the meet with victories in all three of her individual races plus two relays, and she picked up her first of potentially several records Wednesday evening as Virginia beat its own American and NCAA marks in the 200 medley relay.
For latest 50 freestyle, the thought of anyone else winning this title never remotely considered. Her 72-hundredth margin of victory last year was the largest in the more-than-four-decade history of this race at the college level, and this time, Walsh was almost the same margin clear of any non-Virginia swimmer.
Event 5 Women 50 Yard Freestyle
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NCAA: N 20.37 3/21/2024 Gretchen Walsh, Virginia
Meet: M 20.37 3/21/2024 Gretchen Walsh, Virginia
American: A 20.37 3/21/2024 Gretchen Walsh, Virginia
US Open: O 20.37 3/21/2024 Gretchen Walsh, Virginia
Name Year School Prelims Finals Points
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=== Championship Final ===
1 Walsh, Gretchen SR Virginia 20.44 20.49 20
r:+0.71 10.04 20.49 (10.45)
2 Curzan, Claire JR Virginia 21.44 21.11 17
r:+0.65 10.22 21.11 (10.89)
3 Dennis, Julia JR Louisville 21.25 21.20 16
r:+0.63 10.23 21.20 (10.97)
4 Spink, Camille SO Tennessee 21.34 21.27 15
r:+0.67 10.26 21.27 (11.01)
5 Yendell, Sophie 5Y Pittsburgh 21.54 21.66 14
r:+0.69 10.39 21.66 (11.27)
6 Parker, Maxine 5Y Virginia 21.63 21.77 13
r:+0.69 10.63 21.77 (11.14)
7 Albiero, Gabi 5Y Louisville 21.63 21.78 12
r:+0.65 10.53 21.78 (11.25)
8 Vincent, Cadence SO Alabama 21.57 21.83 11
r:+0.66 10.60 21.83 (11.23)
Women - Team Rankings - Through Event 5 1. Virginia 179 2. Stanford 146 3. Texas 99 4. Tennessee 75 5. Louisville 72.5 6. Florida 71 6. Indiana 71 8. California 65.5 9. Michigan 62 10. Wisconsin 45 11. Southern California 35 12. Georgia 28 12. NC State 28 14. Arizona St 27.5 15. Ohio St 21 15. Alabama 21 17. Pittsburgh 14 18. Virginia Tech 6 18. Texas A&M 6 20. Miami (Fl) 5.5 21. Lsu 4 22. UNC 3
