{"id":465334,"date":"2021-03-18T16:22:10","date_gmt":"2021-03-18T23:22:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=465334"},"modified":"2021-03-18T21:45:25","modified_gmt":"2021-03-19T04:45:25","slug":"paige-madden-turns-on-jets-to-win-first-individual-ncaa-title-in-500-freestyle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/paige-madden-turns-on-jets-to-win-first-individual-ncaa-title-in-500-freestyle\/","title":{"rendered":"Paige Madden Turns on Jets to Win First Individual NCAA Title in 500 Freestyle"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a race that was dubbed fairly pedestrian this morning after it took a 4:40 to make the A-Final of the 500 freestyle at NCAAs and a 4:43 to get a second swim, it was a 1-2-3 sweep by three of the toughest women in the entire NCAA championships with Virginia’s\u00a0Paige Madden\u00a0<\/strong>leading from the outset at 4:33.61.<\/p>\n

Distance specialists\u00a0Evie Pfeifer<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>of Texas (4:35.02) and\u00a0Brooke Forde\u00a0<\/strong>of Stanford (4:35.22) gave Madden all she could handle, flipping even with her at the 200 with Madden’s 1:47.44 to Pfeifer’s 1:47.86 and Forde’s 1:48.64. But Madden turned it on on the back half with 27-mids the rest of the way (albeit her 28.0 penultimate 50) and won with a 4:33.61. The time is not a best for Madden, who was a 4:32.98 at NCAAs two years ago when Forde won the NCAA title as those two have been on a collision course, missing out on last year’s meet, for this year in the 500. Madden and Pfeifer will lock horns on Saturday in the 1650 freestyle.<\/p>\n

“It feels great. I have been working (toward) it for the past two years, ever since I finished second. It is definitely a good feeling,” Paige Madden said after the race. “I just wanted to do it for my team. After we got second in the relay, I wanted to hype us up a little big more. I wanted to be aggressive in the first half.”<\/p>\n

There were six total seniors in this field as the experience really showed out for this field with Michigan’s\u00a0Sierra Schmidt\u00a0<\/strong>(4:39.30) placing in fourth after qualifying for the final from heat 1. NC State’s\u00a0Kate Moore\u00a0<\/strong>(4:39.71) and\u00a0Georgia’s\u00a0Courtney Harnish\u00a0<\/strong>(4:41.33) also swam in the championship final as seniors as they both added from their conference times.<\/p>\n

Cal’s Alya Spitz\u00a0<\/strong>(4:39.70) and Ohio State’s\u00a0Sally Tafuto\u00a0<\/strong>(4:40.29) also swam in the championship final in fifth and seventh place, respectively.<\/p>\n

Virginia has now won three NCAA titles in the 500 freestyle after Paige Madden won, and six overall national titles in swimming and diving, as that number should definitely grow by the end of tonight and the rest of the weekend. Madden joins Leah Smith\u00a0<\/strong>(2015, 2016) as winners of the 500 freestyle for Virginia.<\/p>\n