Texas Women Take Down Virginia Despite More Gretchen Walsh Heroics
After a combined University of Texas team edged out Virginia Friday evening, the women’s and men’s teams returned to independent competition Saturday, and the Longhorn women pulled off an upset over the two-time defending national-champion Cavaliers. Individual victories by Erica Sullivan, Lydia Jacoby and Dakota Luther plus Bridget O’Neil’s sweep of 1-meter and 3-meter diving gave Texas a 93-to-76 lead going into the meet-ending 200 free relay, and it was enough to hold off Virginia’s star sprinters for a 95-91 win.
The meet turned in the Longhorns’ favor in the very first event as Virginia won the 400 medley relay by almost three seconds in 3:30.70, which would have been the top time in the nation this season by a substantial margin, but the Cavaliers were disqualified for a false start by versatile senior Kate Douglass on the breaststroke leg. That allowed Texas’ A-team of Emma Sticklen, Anna Elendt, Luther and Kelly Pash to claim first-place points in 3:33.51, and the B-team of Olivia Bray, Jacoby, Grace Cooper and Bridget Semenuk got second in 3:35.39 to give Texas an immediate 15-2 lead.
Sullivan opened the individual events by winning the 1000 freestyle in 9:51.24, but Virginia started to make up ground as Alex Walsh won the 200 IM in 1:56.59, the top time in the country this season, and Ella Nelson claimed second in 1:57.55. Virginia earned another win from Reilly Tiltmann in the 200 backstroke (1:55.16), and then Gretchen Walsh, Alex’s younger sister, lit up the pool in her lone individual swim of the day.
Gretchen Walsh won the 100 free in 47.11, the top time in the nation and just over a second off her national-title-winning time from last season (46.05). Walsh led a Virginia 1-2-3 finish with Maxine Parker (48.95) and Douglass (49.48).
But in the very next event, Texas jumped back on top with a 1-2 finish in the 200 butterfly by Luther (1:53.83) and Pash (1:54.38). Those swimmers both eclipsed the previous fastest time in the country (Luther’s 1:55.23) while relegating reigning NCAA champion Alex Walsh to third (1:55.63). Meanwhile, in diving, O’Neil won 1-meter with a score of 310.43 as Hailey Hernandez took second, and then O’Neil (362.18), Janie Boyle and Hernandez went 1-2-3 in 3-meter.
But what essentially secured the win for Texas was Jacoby’s win in the 200 breaststroke. The freshman from Seward, Alaska, is best known for winning the Olympic gold medal in the 100-meter breast, but she led wire-to-wire in this one on the way to a one-second win. Jacoby touched in 2:09.19, followed by the Virginia duo of Nelson (2:10.19) and Douglass (2:10.90). Douglass is the defending national champion in the event and American-record holder, but she did not have the pop on this day.
At that point, Virginia had essentially no path to victory, but head coach Todd DeSorbo chose to split his 200 free relay teams in attempt to finish 1-2. In fact, the two squads tied. Gretchen Walsh led off the B-team in 21.34, just off the 21.16 she swam in the event Friday evening, and teammates Carly Novelline, Lexi Cuomo and Tiltmann held on to tie the group of Parker, Alex Walsh, Zoe Skirboll and Douglass. Douglass (21.51), Alex Walsh (21.84) and Cuomo (21.96) also split under 22 seconds in their splits.