ACC Championships, Day 4 Finals: Gretchen Walsh Hits 48.10 100 Backstroke for New Record Leading Off Virginia Medley Relay

Gretchen Walsh -- Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick

ACC Championships, Day 4 Finals: Gretchen Walsh Hits 48.10 100 Backstroke for New Record Leading Off Virginia Medley Relay

This week at the ACC Championships, there is no stopping Gretchen Walsh. After hitting the third-fastest time ever in the 200 freestyle leading off the Virginia women’s 800 free relay Tuesday evening, each ensuing final has brought a record (or two). Now, on her lone day off from individual competition, Walsh has set her third individual record of the meet as she knocked off her own American, NCAA and U.S. Open marks in the 100 backstroke.

She set the records in the 50 free and 100 fly over the last two days, but Walsh was absent from the individual 100 back Friday, as Katharine Berkoff took the win, the only women’s swimming event not to go to Virginia thus far. Berkoff was impressive in the 100 back, clocking 48.70 for what was (at the time) the second-fastest mark ever. But Walsh blasted that mark out the window leading off Virginia’s 400 medley relay.

Walsh was out in 22.96, quicker than the 23.02 pace she set on the way to a stunning time of 48.26 at last year’s NCAA Championships. And Walsh came back quicker, too, with her 25.14 mark enough to get her to the wall in 48.10, knocking 16-hundredths from her previous record. Surely, Walsh is setting up a run at the 48-second barrier at next month’s NCAA Championships, either in the individual event or again leading off the relay.

The leadoff leg set the table for another dominant Virginia relay win, as Walsh provided an advantage of more than three-seconds on second-place NC State, which had 100 back runnerup Kennedy Noble swimming the leadoff leg. Walsh was followed by Jasmine Nocentini, who split 57.82 for the field’s quickest breaststroke split, before Alex Walsh went 49.13 on butterfly and Maxine Parker closed the door with a 47.44 freestyle split.

Virginia’s final time was 3:22.49, not far off the U.S. Open and NCAA records of 3:21.80 that the Walsh sisters, Kate Douglass and Aimee Canny set at last year’s ACCs. The American mark also belongs to Virginia, with the Walsh sisters, Douglass and breaststroker Alexis Wenger clocking 3:22.34 twice during the 2023 season. With Nocentini off her 100 breast winning time of 57.01, Virginia could certainly take down those marks at next month’s national meet.

NC State took second here in 3:28.23. After Noble, Abby Arens split 57.86 on breaststroke, with Miriam Sheehan following on butterfly and Katharine Berkoff coming home in a swift 46.09 after nearly false-starting with a -0.03 relay exchange, considered legal by one hundredth.

Louisville was third in 3:30.28 with Paige Hetrick, Ella Welch, Gabi Albiero and Christiana Regenauer. The Cardinals closed well with Albiero (50.37) and Regenauer (46.88) to run down and surpass Duke by 12-hundredths at the finish.

Event 30  Women 400 Yard Medley Relay
==================================================================================
         MEET: # 3:21.80  2/17/2023 University of Virginia, UVA-VA
                          G Walsh, A Walsh, K Douglass, A Canny
         CONF: % 3:21.80  2/17/2023 University of Virginia, UVA-VA
                          G Walsh, A Walsh, K Douglass, A Canny
         AMER: $ 3:21.80  2/17/2023 University of Virginia, UVA-VA
                          G Walsh, A Walsh, K Douglass, A Canny
         USOP: & 3:21.80  2/17/2023 University of Virginia, UVA-VA
                          G Walsh, A Walsh, K Douglass, A Canny
         NCAA: ! 3:21.80  2/17/2023 University of Virginia, UVA-VA
                          G Walsh, A Walsh, K Douglass, A Canny
         Pool: * 3:21.80  2/17/2023 University of Virginia, UVA-V
                          G Walsh, A Walsh, K Douglass, A Canny
                 3:31.38  A
                 3:33.48  B
    School                           Seed     Finals       Points 
==================================================================================
  1 UVA  'A'                      3:26.15    3:22.49 A       64  
     1) Walsh, Gretchen               2) r:0.40 Nocentini, Jasmine    
     3) r:0.24 Walsh, Alexandra       4) r:0.23 Parker, Maxine        
    r:+0.57  22.96        48.10 (48.10)
        1:15.09 (26.99)     1:45.92 (57.82)
        2:08.44 (22.52)     2:35.05 (49.13)
        2:57.68 (22.63)     3:22.49 (47.44)
  2 NC State  'A'                 3:28.27    3:28.23 A       56  
     1) Noble, Helen                  2) r:0.13 Arens, Abigail        
     3) r:0.50 Sheehan, Miriam        4) r:-0.03 Berkoff, Katharine   
    r:+0.59  24.77        51.23 (51.23)
        1:18.05 (26.82)     1:49.09 (57.86)
        2:13.32 (24.23)     2:42.14 (53.05)
        3:03.80 (21.66)     3:28.23 (46.09)
  3 Louisville  'A'               3:31.08    3:30.28 A       54  
     1) Hetrick, Paige                2) r:0.17 Welch, Ella           
     3) r:0.11 Albiero, Gabriela      4) r:0.17 Regenauer, Christiana 
    r:+0.75  25.31        52.49 (52.49)
        1:20.58 (28.09)   1:53.03 (1:00.54)
        2:16.02 (22.99)     2:43.40 (50.37)
        3:05.50 (22.10)     3:30.28 (46.88)
  4 Duke  'A'                     3:31.33    3:30.40 A       52  
     1) Pfaff, Alison                 2) r:0.17 Gridley, Kaelyn       
     3) r:-0.02 Ozkan, Aleyna         4) r:0.18 Foley, Sarah          
    r:+0.75  25.40        52.56 (52.56)
        1:19.82 (27.26)     1:51.53 (58.97)
        2:14.78 (23.25)     2:42.36 (50.83)
        3:05.19 (22.83)     3:30.40 (48.04)
  5 UNC  'A'                      3:37.16    3:32.14 B       50  
     1) Pattison, Greer               2) r:0.19 Smith, Skyler         
     3) r:0.19 Vannote, Elizabeth     4) r:0.24 Carlton, Delaney      
    r:+0.67  24.94        52.35 (52.35)
        1:19.62 (27.27)     1:51.45 (59.10)
        2:15.11 (23.66)     2:43.17 (51.72)
        3:05.95 (22.78)     3:32.14 (48.97)
  6 FSU  'A'                      3:32.24    3:32.28 B       48  
     1) Evans, Sarah                  2) r:0.29 Huggins, Madeline     
     3) r:0.32 Halden, Jenny          4) r:0.13 Muzito, Gloria        
    r:+0.66  25.57        53.43 (53.43)
        1:20.90 (27.47)     1:53.01 (59.58)
        2:16.33 (23.32)     2:44.02 (51.01)
        3:06.68 (22.66)     3:32.28 (48.26)
  7 GT  'A'                       3:36.78    3:35.07         46  
     1) Ferrari, Jillian              2) r:0.17 Brisson, Sabyne       
     3) r:0.25 Ripkova, Zora          4) r:0.34 Hadjiloizou, Anna     
    r:+0.77  25.79        53.57 (53.57)
        1:21.26 (27.69)     1:53.16 (59.59)
        2:17.41 (24.25)     2:45.93 (52.77)
        3:09.31 (23.38)     3:35.07 (49.14)
  8 Pitt  'A'                     3:34.77    3:35.15         44  
     1) Jansen, Claire                2) r:0.14 Strong, Jessica       
     3) r:0.30 Yendell, Sophie        4) r:0.13 Kudlac, Avery         
    r:+0.71  25.72        53.27 (53.27)
        1:21.65 (28.38)   1:55.13 (1:01.86)
        2:18.26 (23.13)     2:45.82 (50.69)
        3:08.91 (23.09)     3:35.15 (49.33)

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