NCAA Women’s Championships: Virginia Ties American and NCAA Records in 400 Medley Relay; On Cusp of Second Straight Title<\/strong><\/p>\n

After Virginia crushed the American, NCAA and U.S. Open records in the 400 medley relay by two seconds at last month at the ACC Championships, the Cavaliers matched that time on the nose to win the NCAA title. The team of\u00a0Gretchen Walsh<\/strong> (49.44), Alexis Wenger <\/strong>(57.27), Alex Walsh<\/strong> (49.45) and Kate Douglass<\/strong> (46.18) finished in 3:22.34.<\/p>\n

Virginia crushed NC State when the two teams faced off on the conference level, but the Wolfpack produced a much bigger challenge at the national meet.\u00a0Katharine Berkoff<\/strong> led off in 49.25, a half-second off her American-record-setting 100 backstroke performance from earlier in the night but enough to give her a lead on Gretchen Walsh, and Sophie Hansson<\/strong> built the lead. NC State fell back on the butterfly and freestyle legs, but\u00a0Kylee Alons<\/strong> and\u00a0Abby Arens<\/strong> still held on to finish in 3:23.29. Ironically, that squad became the first-ever 400 medley relay to swim a 3:23 after UVA leapfrogged from 3:24 to 3:22.<\/p>\n

Stanford’s team of\u00a0Regan Smith<\/strong>,\u00a0Allie Raab<\/strong>,\u00a0Torri Huske<\/strong> and\u00a0Taylor Ruck<\/strong> finished third in 3:25.63, while Texas took fourth in 3:26.36 with Olivia Bray<\/strong>,\u00a0Anna Elendt<\/strong>,\u00a0Emma Sticklen<\/strong> and\u00a0Kelly Pash<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

This was the third relay win of the meet for Virginia after previous victories in the 200 medley and 200 freestyle relays, plus a runnerup effort in the 800 free relay. However, this was the first time the Cavaliers matched one of the three impressive records they set at the conference meet last month. Six American records have gone down at the NCAA Championships, and Virginia swimmers have been responsible for five of those records. Previously, Douglass set individual records in the 50 free (twice) and 100 fly, and Alex Walsh broke the existing standard in the 200 IM.<\/p>\n

While Douglass defeated a spectacular field to win the national title in the 100 fly, she is the regular medley relay anchor for Virginia, leaving Alex Walsh to step in on the butterfly leg. When asked about her strategy for racing the 100 fly, Walsh said she has just tried to model her butterfly after her teammate.<\/p>\n

“That kind of relay, I just wanted to go out there and swim it as fast as I possibly could. I feel like my butterfly is really strong right now, so I\u2019m just happy I am able to do the split I need to break an American record with these girls,” Walsh said. “I try to make my fly look like Kate\u2019s in practice because she\u2019s so efficient. Honestly, she\u2019s been a really good model for me to watch.”<\/p>\n

Virginia finished night three with 386.5 points, 110.5 ahead of second-place Stanford (276) with just one day of competition remaining, giving the Cavaliers a chance to salt away a second consecutive national title on the final day.<\/p>\n

“I think it feels really good, especially as the oldest one here,” Wenger said. “My first year we were fifth, I think. My second year we were supposed to win but it got cancelled. And then last year, everyone has the excuse, \u2018Oh, they won because it was COVID.\u2019 Doing what we\u2019re doing and proving to everyone that we\u2019re winning it on more than just a COVID year, that we are here to do this, it just feels good, and we\u2019re super confident going into tomorrow, just with how we performed today, yesterday and Wednesday. It definitely feels good to show everyone what we came to do.”<\/p>\n