Leah Smith Sets NCAA Record in 1000, 1650 Frees

Photo Courtesy: Virginia Athletics

To kick off the 2016 ACC Women’s Championships, Virginia’s Leah Smith set an NCAA record in the 1000-yard free and 1650-yard freestyle events.

Smith first went out in 9:20.15 to break the 1000-yard freestyle NCAA record of 9:23.78 set by Brittany MacLean for Georgia at the 2014 NCAA Championships.

Smith’s previous best in the 1000 had been a 9:32.56 from back in 2012 during a Christmas Meet for her club team the JCC Sailfish.

Smith’s time today moved her to fourth all time in the event behind Katie Ledecky (8:59.65), Katie Hoff (9:10.77) and Kate Ziegler (9:18.35).

Smith went on to break the 1650-yard free NCAA record of 15:27.84 set by MacLean in 2014 as well. Smith clocked a 15:25.30

Smith moved up to third all time in the 1650-yard freestyle behind only the amazing 15:13.30 set by Ledecky in 2014 at the Winter National Championships as well as Hoff’s 15:24.35 from the 2008 Maryland State Championships.

  1 Leah Smith       JR UVA              15:39.56   15:25.30!A       32  
    r:+0.76  25.92        53.43 (27.51)
        1:21.17 (27.74)     1:49.11 (27.94)
        2:17.19 (28.08)     2:45.33 (28.14)
        3:13.47 (28.14)     3:41.48 (28.01)
        4:09.59 (28.11)     4:37.73 (28.14)
        5:06.02 (28.29)     5:34.22 (28.20)
        6:02.44 (28.22)     6:30.76 (28.32)
        6:59.05 (28.29)     7:27.31 (28.26)
        7:55.50 (28.19)     8:23.77 (28.27)
        8:51.90 (28.13)     9:20.15 (28.25)
        9:48.44 (28.29)    10:16.80 (28.36)
       10:45.18 (28.38)    11:13.40 (28.22)
       11:41.57 (28.17)    12:09.60 (28.03)
       12:37.72 (28.12)    13:05.87 (28.15)
       13:33.94 (28.07)    14:02.15 (28.21)
       14:30.30 (28.15)    14:58.39 (28.09)    15:25.30 (26.91)

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