NCAA Division I Women’s Championships: Leah Smith Becomes Virginia’s 2nd NCAA Champ

Photo Courtesy: Delly Carr

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Virginia’s Leah Smith wasn’t able to break her preliminary NCAA record of 4:30.37, but she had enough in the tank to smoke the rest of the field to win the 500-yard free at the NCAA Division I Women’s Championships. Her prelim time put her second all time behind Katie Ledecky (4:26.58).

Smith clocked a time of 4:31.54, the 10th-fastest effort all time, to win the event.

She joins Cara Lane as the only Virginia Cavaliers to ever win an NCAA title. Lane went back to back in the 1500/1650 free titles in 2000 and 2001.

2000 Cara Lane, Virginia, 16:03.59 *1500 SCM
2001 Cara Lane, Virginia, 15:53.86

Leah Smith, Virginia

On ability to have a comeback swim after the performance this morning
“Yeah, it was similar to the race I had at the Georgia Invite. In the morning my coach just said I want you to have a strong race but be sure to bring it back fast. That morning, I thought I was going to touch 4:39 and I touched 4:32. Last year I didn’t make the A-final which I was very upset about so this year I went in there with a mindset of doing anything I can to have the best race possible.”

“People were telling me ‘Hey, you’re ahead by 5 seconds. It’s not going to be that hard.’ But I knew it was going to be difficult with the field of competitors. However, I did realize it wasn’t going to take another huge drop for me to win the race. So, just being realistic while trying to have a great race.”

California’s Cierra Runge, who had owned the NCAA record with a 4:31.90 from the Pacific 12 Championships, wound up taking second overall in 4:33.82.

Texas A&M’s Sarah Henry edged Georgia’s Amber McDermott, 4:34.34 to 4:35.31, for third place overall.

Georgia still managed to gain plenty of team points with Hali Flickinger (4:37.40), Brittany MacLean (4:38.05), Rachel Zilinskas (4:39.22) and Jordan Mattern (4:36.49) going 6-7-8-9.

  1 Smith, Leah      SO Virginia-VA       4:30.37    4:31.54 D1-A    20  
    r:+0.81  24.99        51.71 (26.72)
        1:18.89 (27.18)     1:46.15 (27.26)
        2:13.41 (27.26)     2:40.95 (27.54)
        3:08.51 (27.56)     3:36.33 (27.82)
        4:04.15 (27.82)     4:31.54 (27.39)
  2 Runge, Cierra    FR California-PC     4:35.28    4:33.82 D1-A    17  
    r:+0.79  25.36        52.41 (27.05)
        1:19.98 (27.57)     1:47.60 (27.62)
        2:15.55 (27.95)     2:43.07 (27.52)
        3:10.94 (27.87)     3:38.84 (27.90)
        4:06.73 (27.89)     4:33.82 (27.09)
  3 Henry, Sarah     SR Texas A&M-GU      4:36.13    4:34.34 D1-A    16  
    r:+0.76  25.66        53.27 (27.61)
        1:20.86 (27.59)     1:48.40 (27.54)
        2:15.99 (27.59)     2:43.68 (27.69)
        3:11.68 (28.00)     3:39.74 (28.06)
        4:07.29 (27.55)     4:34.34 (27.05)

  1. Georgia                            92   2. California                         58
  3. Texas A&M                          44   4. Wisconsin                          35
  5. Stanford                           34   6. Auburn                             26
  6. Virginia                           26   8. NC State                           24
  9. Louisville                         22  10. Southern California                21
 11. Tennessee                          18  12. Arizona                            14
 12. Florida                            14  14. UNC                                10
 14. Penn State                         10  16. Texas                               8
 17. Iowa                                4  18. Indiana                             3
 19. San Diego State                     2

2015 NCAA Division I Women’s Swimming & Diving, Live Results – Results

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Ivanek Brekalo

9 years ago

UNBELIEVABLE! <3

Bill Bell

9 years ago

Looks like a certain habitual post er’ll have to eat his words!

Congratulations, Leah and congrats, Augie, for getting an NCAA in your first season as Cavs’ coach.

Most impressive.

Wonder how many defending champs have gone from first to seventh in one season?