NCAA Championships: Claire Curzan Secures First NCAA Title in 200 Backstroke; Bacon Edges Stadden for Second

Claire Curzan -- Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick

NCAA Championships: Claire Curzan Secures First NCAA Title in 200 Backstroke; Bacon Edges Stadden for Second

During her last two years of high school, Claire Curzan propelled herself from National-Age-Group-record breaker to Olympian, achieving the top stage in the sport with a second-place finish in the 100-meter butterfly at the 2021 Olympic Trials, and then to international medalist. Curzan was a prelims relay swimmer at the Tokyo Olympics, and one year later at the World Championships, she won bronze in the 100-medals backstroke plus four relay medals as she took on a significant role for the U.S. women.

Now, it’s no surprise that Curzan has instantly been successful on the college stage. In high school, Curzan was even more prolific in short course than long course, with her underwater dolphin kickouts deployed to great effect, and she has combined with fellow Olympians Torri Huske and Taylor Ruck to highlight a strong Stanford team finished third overall at the NCAA Championships..

During her first two individual events of the meet, Curzan was slightly overshadowed in the 100 fly and 100 back as Virginia swimmers achieved record-smashing performances in both races, but Curzan finished a solid fourth place in the 100 fly and third in the 100 back. But all season, the 200 back was the event in which she seemed to have the biggest opening to win an NCAA title. At last month’s Pac-12 Championships, she swam a time of 1:47.43 to become the fourth-fastest swimmer in history, and Saturday evening in Knoxville, Tenn., she backed up that success with the national title by 1.64 seconds.

Cal’s Isabelle Stadden stayed close to Curzan early on, but Curzan blasted a 27.21 split on the third 50 to extend the lead to almost a second, and she held on down the stretch. Curzan touched in 1:47.64 for the win.

“I was just telling myself up at the blocks that I’m so excited for this race. It’s kind of my jam for short course, and I have been putting in a lot of backstroke work. Honestly, I was not nervous as I probably should have been. I was just excited to hopefully make it a good one, and I did,” Curzan said. “I’ve been looking forward to this meet for a very, very long time, so just to be here in person, it’s crazy. The TV doesn’t do it justice. It was just so crazy to be a part of this environment.”

The college environment at Stanford has been a refreshing change for Curzan. She sees promise in what she and her teammates can achieve under coaches Greg Meehan and Tracy Slusser, and while she does feel “kind of a mental block” with her butterfly, she has enjoyed getting to train next to Torri Huske, her fellow 100-meter butterflyer for the United States on the international level each of the past two years.

“I’m having so much more fun in training,” Curzan said. “I look forward every day to being next to my girlfriends. It’s so much fun to be able to train with them, and I think because of that environment, I’ve just gotten tougher mentally. I get in, and I attack hard sets that I normally would be afraid of. It was hard going to winter training and having to be apart from them for a little bit, but I always get excited when I get to go with them. I think a lot of good things are going to come.”

Wisconsin’s Phoebe Bacon finished well to overtake Stadden for second, 1:49.28 to 1:49.38. Bacon was the runnerup for the second consecutive season after winning this title in 2021, and in long course, she was the silver medalist in the 200-meter back at last year’s World Championships. Stadden, meanwhile, improved from a fourth-place finish last year.

Tennessee’s Josephine Fuller was the best of the rest in 1:50.22, while NC State’s Kennedy Noble (1:50.58) and Virginia’s Reilly Tiltmann (1:50.84) also broke 1:51. Meanwhile, 200-meter back World Championships bronze medalist Rhyan White surprisingly finished 15th in prelims, so she raced in the B-final. White dropped eight tenths at night, but she ended up in third place in a tight finish, touching in 1:51.93 behind Indiana’s Anna Peplowski (1:51.84) and Louisville’s Paige Hetrick (1:51.90).

Event 16  Women 200 Yard Backstroke
=========================================================================
         NCAA: N 1:47.24  3/23/2019 Beata Nelson, Wisconsin
         Meet: M 1:47.24  3/23/2019 Beata Nelson, Wisconsin
     American: A 1:47.16  3/10/2019 Regan Smith, Riptide
      US Open: O 1:47.16  3/10/2019 Regan Smith, Riptide
         Pool: P 1:49.30  11/21/2020Rhyan White, Alabama
    Name                 Year School            Prelims     Finals Points 
=========================================================================
                       === Championship Final ===                        
 
  1 Curzan, Claire         FR Stanford          1:49.48    1:47.64P  20  
    r:+0.71  25.52        52.68 (27.16)
        1:19.89 (27.21)     1:47.64 (27.75)
  2 Bacon, Phoebe          JR Wisconsin         1:50.03    1:49.28P  17  
    r:+0.71  26.03        53.40 (27.37)
        1:21.08 (27.68)     1:49.28 (28.20)
  3 Stadden, Isabelle      JR California        1:50.44    1:49.38   16  
    r:+0.71  25.62        52.82 (27.20)
        1:20.68 (27.86)     1:49.38 (28.70)
  4 Fuller, Josephine      SO Tennessee         1:50.12    1:50.22   15  
    r:+0.68  26.09        53.90 (27.81)
        1:22.03 (28.13)     1:50.22 (28.19)
  5 Noble, Kennedy         FR NC State          1:50.88    1:50.58   14  
    r:+0.59  25.94        53.90 (27.96)
        1:22.29 (28.39)     1:50.58 (28.29)
  6 Tiltmann, Reilly       SO Virginia          1:51.23    1:50.84   13  
    r:+0.71  26.60        54.54 (27.94)
        1:22.93 (28.39)     1:50.84 (27.91)
  7 Bray, Olivia           JR Texas             1:51.18    1:51.95   12  
    r:+0.74  25.48        53.37 (27.89)
        1:22.41 (29.04)     1:51.95 (29.54)
  8 Muzzy, Emma            5Y NC State          1:51.00    1:52.82   11  
    r:+0.75  26.01        54.17 (28.16)
        1:23.41 (29.24)     1:52.82 (29.41)
 
                        === Consolation Final ===                        
 
  9 Peplowski, Anna        SO Indiana           1:51.32    1:51.84    9  
    r:+0.81  26.51        54.86 (28.35)
        1:23.34 (28.48)     1:51.84 (28.50)
 10 Hetrick, Paige         JR Louisville        1:51.84    1:51.90    7  
    r:+0.95  25.93        54.04 (28.11)
        1:22.83 (28.79)     1:51.90 (29.07)
 11 White, Rhyan           5Y Alabama           1:52.70    1:51.93    6  
    r:+0.75  26.31        54.51 (28.20)
        1:23.24 (28.73)     1:51.93 (28.69)
 12 Lindner, Sophie        5Y UNC               1:51.72    1:52.35    5  
    r:+0.75  27.01        55.17 (28.16)
        1:23.67 (28.50)     1:52.35 (28.68)
 13 Gorecka, Weronika      SR Akron             1:52.43    1:52.63    4  
    r:+0.60  26.61        54.73 (28.12)
        1:23.42 (28.69)     1:52.63 (29.21)
 14 Bentz, Caroline        JR VT                1:52.76    1:52.74    3  
    r:+0.68  26.33        54.67 (28.34)
        1:23.62 (28.95)     1:52.74 (29.12)
 15 Brooks, Caitlin        SR Kentucky          1:52.35    1:52.96    2  
    r:+0.70  26.51        54.78 (28.27)
        1:23.67 (28.89)     1:52.96 (29.29)
 16 Nordmann, Lucie        SR Stanford          1:52.54    1:53.29    1  
    r:+0.63  26.20        54.82 (28.62)
        1:24.02 (29.20)     1:53.29 (29.27)
 
                Women - Team Rankings - Through Event 16                 
 
  1. Virginia                        393.5   2. Texas                           298.5
  3. Stanford                          260   4. NC State                          215
  5. Louisville                      207.5   6. Tennessee                         178
  7. Ohio St                           173   8. Indiana                           159
  9. Florida                           150  10. UNC                               130
 11. California                        121  12. Alabama                           101
 13. Wisconsin                         100  14. Georgia                          86.5
 15. Southern California                86  16. Lsu                                79
 17. Kentucky                           44  18. Minnesota                          37
 19. Miami (Fl)                         36  20. Arizona                            32
 21. Michigan                           29  22. Virginia Tech                      28
 23. South Carolina                     25  24. Texas A&M                          22
 25. Duke                               20  26. Auburn                             14
 27. Northwestern                       13  28. Arkansas                           12
 29. Miami (Ohio)                        9  30. Purdue                              7
 30. Penn                                7  30. Florida St                          7
 33. UCLA                                6  34. Akron                               5
 35. Arizona St                          4  36. Utah                                2
 36. Georgia Tech                        2  38. Florida Int'l                       1

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Julia

1 year ago

GOOD