Virginia Cavaliers Dominate NCAA Women’s Championship By ‘Creating Fantastic Moments’<\/strong><\/p>\n

For the second season in a row, the University of Virginia Cavaliers are the NCAA Women’s Swimming and Diving Champions. Led by head coach Todd DeSorbo<\/strong>, Virginia finished with 551.5 points to beat second-place Texas by 145.5 points. Virginia was led by a duo of three-event winners: Kate Douglass<\/strong> won the 50 freestyle, 100 butterfly and 200 breaststroke, all in American-record times, while Alex Walsh<\/strong> set an American record in the 200 IM before adding wins in the 400 IM and 200 butterfly.<\/p>\n

Additionally, Gretchen Walsh<\/strong> (Alex’s younger sister) won the 100 freestyle after finishing second in the 100 backstroke (breaking the previous American record in the process) and 50 freestyle, and the Cavaliers won four of the five relays and finished second in the fifth relay, the 800 freestyle relay. The Cavaliers team of Gretchen Walsh, Alexis<\/strong> Wenger<\/strong>, Alex Walsh and Douglass tied their own American and NCAA record in the 400 medley relay, and then the quartet of Douglass, Alex Walsh,\u00a0Reilly Tiltmann<\/strong> and Gretchen Walsh concluded the meet by swimming the fastest time in history in the 400 freestyle relay.<\/p>\n

“All week long, we\u2019ve talked about moments and trying to create fantastic moments for the team and create a great environment for the team,” DeSorbo said. “They just shocked me. Coming off the ACC Championships, I didn\u2019t necessarily know if they could exceed what they did there. Certainly, they were significantly better here. They just blow my mind. They are great athletes and great group of people. They create a bubble and don\u2019t worry about what\u2019s going on outside of it. They make this easy. They make my job really fun. And they\u2019re why I’m sitting here. They\u2019re the ones putting in the hard work.<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s really fulfilling for them and for me because I see what they go through every day. It\u2019s a very hard sport. They put a lot of emotion, sweat tears and blood into it, so watching them accomplish what they have accomplished, to have them do it, I\u2019m proud of them. They deserve it. They deserve every bit of what they\u2019ve accomplished.”<\/p>\n

The Longhorns finished second with 406 points. Stanford started the final day 19 points ahead of Texas and looked strong through Saturday’s swimming prelims, but Texas placed three platform divers into the championship final and then did enough in the 400 freestyle relay to hold on to second place. Texas pulled off the runnerup finish despite having only two top-two finishes in the entire meet, Erica Sullivan’s<\/strong> second-place effort in the 1650 freestyle and\u00a0Anna Elendt’s <\/strong>runnerup placing\u00a0in the 200 breaststroke.<\/p>\n

Stanford, which saw\u00a0Taylor Ruck<\/strong> win the national title in the 200 freestyle and\u00a0Regan Smith<\/strong> earn a win in the 200 backstroke, finished third with 399.5 points, while Alabama scored 288 to edge out North Carolina State (279). Louisville (196.5), Michigan (184.5), Cal (180), Ohio State (165) and Tennessee (127) rounded out the top-10.<\/p>\n

But the story, all week long, was Virginia, a team that has gone from nowhere near title contention in DeSorbo’s first NCAA Championships in 2018 to back-to-back championships in just four years.<\/p>\n

“I think it\u2019s pretty historic,” Alex Walsh said. “Four years ago, the Virginia women got ninth. The trend has just been exponential, and I don\u2019t think any other team can say that they had the success that we have had.”<\/p>\n