Off Stellar NCAA Debut, Todd DeSorbo Backs Sara Curtis to Chase Gretchen Walsh Records
Sara Curtis hadn’t been at the University of Virginia long when her training partner, Gretchen Walsh, and Todd DeSorbo started looking ahead.
The Italian international’s talent before arriving in Charlottesville was unmistakably massive. But even by those standards, her adaptation to short-course yards and college life was rapid.
Walsh, the 25-time NCAA champion, saw it.
“Gretchen actually said to me at one point early in the fall, she’s going to break my record,” DeSorbo said Saturday, after Virginia clinched its sixth straight NCAA title. “And I’m like, ‘No way.’
“Now, I think there’s a chance.”
Curtis was instrumental in that first title. The 19-year-old finished second in the fastest 50 freestyle final in NCAA history. She scored 13th in the 100 butterfly. And she finished third, a spot behind teammate Anna Moesch, in the 100 free.
In the first year of the post-Walshes era, Curtis was a vital cog in Virginia not missing a beat.
“I knew she was good,” DeSorbo said. “I didn’t know she would do what she did and really adjust so quickly. I think a lot of it is the culture of the team and being able to bring her in and show her what a team is about. And she embraced that. Her biggest celebrations are on the relays. She gets excited about that kind of stuff.”
Indeed, the relay absence of Gretchen Walsh as “the ultimate cheat code,” in DeSorbo’s words, might have been the most pressing question entering the week at Georgia Tech. Moesch’s emergence as the second-fastest 200 freestyler in history answered some of it. The dominance of Claire Curzan and the versatility of Aimee Canny answered others. But so did Curtis.
Virginia went 5-for-5 on relays. Curtis led off the 200 medley with the fastest split of the meet at 22.73. She brought home the 200 free in 20.55, led off the 400 medley relay with the fastest split in the field at 49.47 and then anchored the NCAA-record 400 free relay to the tune of 46.30.
All of that is amazing. But times that could one day rival Walsh, the best sprinter the NCAA has ever seen?
Curtis’ 50 free this week 20.74. Walsh’s record is 20.37; she went 20.95 as a freshman.
In the 100, Curtis went 45.77. She’s still a second behind Walsh’s 44.71 record from 2025. But Walsh as a freshman was 46.05.
“Gretchen, for me, is such a great inspiration, of course,” Curtis said. “She’s probably one of my favorite swimmers ever. I’m probably at Virginia because of her. She’s such a great inspiration.”
There’s a long way to go for Curtis to reach Walsh. And saddling a freshman with that kind of pressure would be unfair unless it was by someone who knew the parties involved as completely as DeSorbo. It speaks to his belief in Curtis’ makeup to believe she will take that not as pressure but as purpose to push on.
“She is super talented, but she works really, really hard,” he said. “And I think she’s just scratching the surface. I think she’s just going to keep getting better and better and better.”
“Receiving all of these words from Todd, it makes me so proud and happy,” Curtis said. “Hopefully, I can do I don’t know, something great.”