NCAA Women’s Championships: Virginia Wins 200 Free Relay to Cap Dominant, Championship-Caliber Night

Virginia's 200 freestyle relay on its way to an NCAA title -- Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick

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NCAA Women’s Championships: Virginia Wins 200 Free Relay to Cap Dominant, Championship-Caliber Night

Virginia was heavily favored in the women’s 200 freestyle relay at the NCAA Championships, particularly after the group of Kate Douglass, Alex Walsh, Lexi Cuomo and Gretchen Walsh posted the fastest time ever last month at the ACC Championships. The status as favorites was only reinforced earlier in the night as Alex Walsh and Douglass each stormed to American records earlier in the session, with Gretchen Walsh becoming the third-fastest swimmer ever in the 50 free as she finished second to Douglass.

But the Alabama Crimson Tide made this a serious contest. Bama senior Morgan Scott split 21.28 on the second leg to close the gap on Virginia, and then freshman Kailyn Winter took the lead by four hundredths heading into the anchor leg. But Virginia still had an ace left to swim, and Gretchen Walsh utilized a brilliant turn, underwater and final 25 to move back ahead. Walsh’s 20.58 split was the only performance in the field under 21. Virginia ended up finishing in 1:24.96, a half-second off the American, U.S. Open and NCAA records set last month.

“It’s so much fun,” Gretchen Walsh said on-deck after the race. “This is by far my favorite relay. Watching all these girls before me kill it tonight was amazing and inspiring. Alex’s 200 IM, swimming next to Kate in the 50 free was crazy, so I just wanted to bring home a win for my girls.”

Alabama’s Kalia Antoniou, Scott, Winter and Cora Dupre placed second in 1:25.47, while third place went to NC State’s Katharine Berkoff, Kylee Alons, Sophie Hansson and Abby Arens in 1:26.37.

Virginia’s relay win left the Cavaliers with 120 points at the end of Thursday night’s session, 82 ahead of second-place Texas, while the Longhorns (128) sit just ahead of Stanford (123) and Alabama (120).

Virginia Brilliance from Start to Finish

As a whole, the session simply screamed “championship:” in three events, the Cavaliers had two individual wins, two runnerup finishes and two American records. The Virginia stars were simply sensational at the biggest moment of their season, and even with two-thirds of the events still to be swum, it’s really hard to imagine any team but Virginia ending up with the national championship.

First up was Emma Weyant, one of three individual Olympic medalists from the Tokyo Games on Virginia’s roster. Weyant’s skills in the long course 400 IM were unquestioned after she finished behind only Yui Ohashi of Japan in the event to clinch a silver medal last July, but as she focused on short course in the leadup to her first NCAA Championships, she was not a top-three lock in any individual event.

Well, Weyant unleashed by far her best performance in eight months — since she arrived in Charlottesville — as she finished second in the 500 free in 4:34.99, her best time by more than two seconds.

Next , in the 200 IM, Alex Walsh was seeking to defend her NCAA title eight months after she, too, finished second to Ohashi in a breakthrough moment at the Olympics. Stanford’s Torri Huske was positioned to get off to a big lead and present a significant challenge to Walsh, but that’s not what happened as Walsh stayed close through the butterfly and backstroke legs before deploying an unprecedented 31.64 breaststroke leg to move into the lead.

Ella Eastin’s American record, the amazing 1:50.67 from the 2018 NCAAs in Columbus? That was never seriously in jeopardy, not with Walsh’s best time sitting almost a second behind. But Walsh is a different swimmer in 2022 than she was last spring. Showing up in a pressured situation like the Olympics and delivering in full force was a game-changer, and she showed that Thursday evening in her best event.

And of course, the 50 free, where Douglass and Gretchen Walsh both broke 21 for the first time Thursday. Only one swimmer (Abbey Weitzeil) had ever been that quick previously. The younger Walsh sister, a touted up-and-comer for years but coming off a disappointing Olympic Trials, has made huge strides in her first year of college swimming, while Douglass is another who has used the momentum from the Olympics for a big boost.

Remember the event where Douglass won her Olympic medal? That’s right, it was the 200 IM, where she joined Ohashi and Alex Walsh on the podium. The 200 IM Olympic bronze medalist is now the fastest swimmer ever in the 50-yard freestyle. She skipped the 200 IM at NCAAs for the second straight year — because she can. She has now won the 50 free two straight years, and Virginia has the 200 IM covered without her.

Douglass is also the top seed later in the week in the 200 breaststroke, and no female swimmer has ever won NCAA titles in both the 50 free and 200 breast. Before that, she will face off with Huske and Olympic gold medalist Maggie Mac Neil in the 100 butterfly Friday.

Speaking of Friday, Virginia is seeded 2-4-5 in the 400 IM with Alex Walsh, 2021 NCAA runnerup Ella Nelson and Weyant. To reiterate, the third-best Virginia swimmer in an event won the Olympic silver medal in long course. How crazy is that? And after the 200 IM American record, it’s hard not to like Walsh’s chances at completing the IM double.

Meanwhile, if the remaining two days of the meet played out exactly according to the psych sheet, Virginia would win by 151 points, which is a significant increase on the 117-point the Cavaliers were originally projected to have over Stanford.

How can this Virginia team be beaten? Barring a huge shakeup, one that includes multiple major disqualifications, there’s almost no path for any other team, even if Virginia isn’t perfect over the next two days. Not with swimmers of this caliber swimming better than ever before.

Team scores

  1. Virginia                          210   2. Texas                             128
  3. Stanford                          123   4. Alabama                           120
  5. NC State                           99   6. Louisville                         95
  7. California                         89   8. Ohio St                            83
  9. Michigan                           66  10. Florida                            62
 11. Georgia                            57  12. Tennessee                          53
 12. UNC                                53  14. Wisconsin                          34
 14. Indiana                            34  16. Miami (Florida)                    27
 16. Southern California                27  18. Duke                               26
 19. Missouri                           24  19. Kentucky                           24
 21. Penn                               20  22. Arizona St                         19
 23. Minnesota                          17  24. Arizona                            16
 25. Northwestern                       15  26. South Carolina                      9
 27. Arkansas                            6  28. Lsu                                 4
 28. UCLA                                4  30. Notre Dame                          3
 31. Virginia Tech                       2  32. Yale                                1

Event 7  Women 200 Yard Freestyle Relay
==================================================================================
         NCAA: N 1:24.47  2/16/2022 Virginia
                          K Douglass, A Walsh, A Cuomo, G Walsh
         Meet: M 1:24.55  3/21/2019 California
                          M Murphy, K McLaughlin, A Bilquist, A Weitzeil
     American: A 1:24.47  2/16/2022 Virginia
                          K Douglass, A Walsh, A Cuomo, G Walsh
      US Open: O 1:24.47  2/16/2022 Virginia
                          K Douglass, A Walsh, A Cuomo, G Walsh
         Pool: P 1:24.47  2/16/2022 Virginia
                          K Douglass, A Walsh, A Cuomo, G Walsh
    School                                          Finals Points 
==================================================================================
  1 Virginia                                       1:24.96   40  
     1) Douglass, Kate JR             2) r:0.39 Walsh, Alex SO        
     3) r:0.11 Cuomo, Lexi JR         4) r:0.23 Walsh, Gretchen FR    
    r:+0.64  10.17        21.06 (21.06)
          31.41 (10.35)       42.52 (21.46)
          52.78 (10.26)     1:04.38 (21.86)
         1:14.17 (9.79)     1:24.96 (20.58)
  2 Alabama                                        1:25.47   34  
     1) Antoniou, Kalia SR            2) r:0.29 Scott, Morgan SR      
     3) r:0.00 Winter, Kailyn FR      4) r:0.19 Dupre, Cora JR        
    r:+0.66  10.57        21.64 (21.64)
           31.63 (9.99)       42.92 (21.28)
          52.95 (10.03)     1:04.34 (21.42)
         1:14.31 (9.97)     1:25.47 (21.13)
  3 NCSU                                           1:26.37   32  
     1) Berkoff, Katharine JR         2) r:0.31 Alons, Kylee SR       
     3) r:0.29 Hansson, Sophie SR     4) r:0.08 Arens, Abby SO        
    r:+0.67  10.51        21.58 (21.58)
          31.78 (10.20)       43.07 (21.49)
          53.62 (10.55)     1:05.12 (22.05)
         1:14.93 (9.81)     1:26.37 (21.25)
  4 Ohio St                                        1:26.74   30  
     1) Zenick, Katherine SO          2) r:0.14 Fulmer, Amy JR        
     3) r:0.31 Crane, Emily SR        4) r:0.16 Ivan, Teresa FR       
    r:+0.60  10.51        21.91 (21.91)
          31.97 (10.06)       43.15 (21.24)
          53.35 (10.20)     1:05.06 (21.91)
        1:15.30 (10.24)     1:26.74 (21.68)
  5 Louisville                                     1:26.83   28  
     1) Albiero, Gabi SO              2) r:0.12 Regenauer, Chriiana JR
     3) r:0.22 Ulett, Tristen SO      4) r:0.19 Openysheva, Arina SR  
    r:+0.60  10.53        21.74 (21.74)
          31.80 (10.06)       43.22 (21.48)
          53.42 (10.20)     1:04.93 (21.71)
        1:15.25 (10.32)     1:26.83 (21.90)
  6 Stanford                                       1:26.90   26  
     1) Huske, Torri FR               2) r:0.20 Ruck, Taylor JR       
     3) r:0.30 Goeders, Anya SR       4) r:0.24 Wheal, Emma JR        
    r:+0.62  10.35        21.76 (21.76)
          31.86 (10.10)       43.17 (21.41)
          53.18 (10.01)     1:04.72 (21.55)
        1:15.24 (10.52)     1:26.90 (22.18)
  7 Michigan                                       1:27.04   24  
     1) Flynn, Lindsay FR             2) r:0.03 Newman, Claire SO     
     3) r:0.16 MacNeil, Maggie SR     4) r:0.12 Carter, Olivia SR     
    r:+0.64  10.67        22.01 (22.01)
          32.09 (10.08)       43.60 (21.59)
           53.54 (9.94)     1:04.75 (21.15)
        1:15.28 (10.53)     1:27.04 (22.29)
  8 Missouri                                       1:27.06   22  
     1) Keil, Megan SR                2) r:0.24 Thompson, Sarah 5Y    
     3) r:0.12 Feddersen, Amy JR      4) r:0.30 Smith, Sierra SO      
    r:+0.62  10.73        22.06 (22.06)
           31.90 (9.84)       43.29 (21.23)
          53.58 (10.29)     1:05.03 (21.74)
        1:15.51 (10.48)     1:27.06 (22.03)

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