{"id":500381,"date":"2022-03-19T17:56:25","date_gmt":"2022-03-20T00:56:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=500381"},"modified":"2022-03-19T20:18:20","modified_gmt":"2022-03-20T03:18:20","slug":"ncaa-womens-championships-virginia-caps-off-dominant-meet-with-american-record-in-400-free-relay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/ncaa-womens-championships-virginia-caps-off-dominant-meet-with-american-record-in-400-free-relay\/","title":{"rendered":"NCAA Women’s Championships: Virginia Caps Off Dominant Meet With American Record in 400 Free Relay"},"content":{"rendered":"

NCAA Women’s Championships: Virginia Caps Off Dominant Meet With American Record in 400 Free Relay<\/strong><\/p>\n

At the conclusion of a dominant swim meet, the University of Virginia women capped off their NCAA-title-winning performance by breaking the American, NCAA and U.S. Open records in the 400 freestyle relay. The quartet of\u00a0Kate Douglass<\/strong> (46.62),\u00a0Alex Walsh<\/strong> (46.49),\u00a0Reilly Tiltmann<\/strong> (46.49) and\u00a0Gretchen Walsh<\/strong> (46.01) combined for a time of 3:06.91, edging out the previous all-time best of 3:06.96 set by California in 2019 and crushing the old American record of 3:07.61 that Stanford set in 2017.<\/p>\n

Stanford’s team of\u00a0Torri Huske<\/strong>,\u00a0Lillie Nordmann<\/strong>,\u00a0Regan Smith<\/strong> and Taylor Ruck<\/strong> placed second in 3:08.97, but that was not enough for Stanford to move ahead of Texas for second place in the final team standings as the Longhorns placed ninth to maintain part of the 22.5-point advance they built during platform diving.<\/p>\n

The Alabama team of Diana Petkova<\/strong>,\u00a0Morgan Scott<\/strong>,\u00a0Kalia Antoniou<\/strong> and\u00a0Cora Dupre<\/strong> finished third in 3:09.07, just a tenth behind Stanford, while NC State and Michigan tied for fourth in 3:09.95.<\/p>\n

The win was the fourth of the competition for Virginia after previous wins in the 200 freestyle relay, 200 medley relay and 400 medley relay, and the Cavaliers also placed second to Stanford in the 800 free relay. Douglass and Gretchen Walsh were part of all four relay wins, while Alex Walsh was a contributor to three of those squads. Virginia now owns American, NCAA and U.S. Open records in all four shorter relays after setting three at the ACC Championships last month and then matching the record in the 400 medley relay Friday. The record was also the seventh set or tied this meet, and all but one (the women’s 100 backstroke) was by a Virginia swimmer or relay team.<\/p>\n

The win put the finishing touches on Virginia’s second consecutive national title as the Cavaliers ended the meet with 551.5 points, 145.5 ahead of second-place Texas.<\/p>\n

“Last year was awesome for us, but I kind of feel like we walked into the meet knowing there was a good chance we were going to win,” Douglass said. “This year, there was a target on our back and it would be more competitive trying to win this year. From the first prelims session, we started off really great, and we just kept it momentum going. We all exceeded expectations at this meet. This relay was a great way to top it off, and it was so much fun.”<\/p>\n

Final team scores:<\/strong><\/p>\n

  1. Virginia                        551.5   2. Texas                             406\r\n  3. Stanford                        399.5   4. Alabama                           288\r\n  5. NC State                          279   6. Louisville                      196.5\r\n  7. Michigan                        184.5   8. California                        180\r\n  9. Ohio St                           165  10. Tennessee                         127\r\n 11. Indiana                           116  12. Kentucky                        115.5\r\n 13. Florida                           115  14. UNC                               109\r\n 15. Georgia                         104.5  16. Southern California               102\r\n 17. Wisconsin                         100  18. Northwestern                       73\r\n 19. Arizona                          52.5  20. Penn                             44.5\r\n 21. Minnesota                          43  22. Miami (Florida)                  41.5\r\n 23. Virginia Tech                      37  24. Duke                               36\r\n 25. Missouri                           34  26. Arizona St                         29\r\n 27. Rutgers                            18  28. Arkansas                           15\r\n 29. Yale                             14.5  30. Purdue                             14\r\n 31. South Carolina                      9  32. Lsu                                 8\r\n 33. Notre Dame                          6  34. Wyoming                             4\r\n 34. UCLA                                4  36. Florida Int'l                       3\r\n 37. San Diego St                        2  37. Harvard                             2\r\n 39. Texas A&M                           1<\/pre>\n