{"id":605008,"date":"2025-02-21T18:21:25","date_gmt":"2025-02-22T01:21:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=605008"},"modified":"2025-02-21T19:25:20","modified_gmt":"2025-02-22T02:25:20","slug":"virginia-women-shatter-american-ncaa-u-s-open-records-in-400-medley-relay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/virginia-women-shatter-american-ncaa-u-s-open-records-in-400-medley-relay\/","title":{"rendered":"Virginia Women Shatter American, NCAA, U.S. Open Records in 400 Medley Relay"},"content":{"rendered":"

Virginia Women Shatter American, NCAA, U.S. Open Records in 400 Medley Relay<\/strong><\/p>\n

The University of Virginia women had already posted the top time ever in the 800 freestyle relay at the ACC Championships<\/a>, having annihilated a mark set eight years ago by a Stanford team that included\u00a0Katie Ledecky<\/strong> and\u00a0Simone Manuel<\/strong>. Now, the Cavaliers have crushed the American, U.S. Open and NCAA records in the 400 medley relay, showing what was possible when Olympian Claire Curzan<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong>and stud freshman\u00a0Anna Moesch<\/strong> team up with superstar sisters\u00a0Alex Walsh<\/strong> and\u00a0Gretchen Walsh<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Curzan led off in 49.35, the third-fastest time in the country this season in the 100 backstroke behind conference-title-winning times from Gretchen Walsh (ACC) and\u00a0Bella Sims<\/strong> (SEC) posted Friday evening. Alex Walsh followed with a 57.05 breaststroke split before her younger sister unleashed a 47.00 butterfly split, the fastest in history. Finally, Moesch came home in 46.18 on the way to a final time of 3:19.58.<\/p>\n

That helped Virginia finish in 3:19.58, almost one-and-a-half seconds under the existing NCAA and U.S. Open records of 3:21.01 set by the Cavaliers’ team of Gretchen Walsh,\u00a0Jasmine Nocentini<\/strong>, Alex Walsh and\u00a0Maxine Parker<\/strong> at last season’s NCAA Championships. The team wiped almost three seconds from the American mark set by the Walsh sisters alongside\u00a0Alexis Wenger<\/strong> and\u00a0Kate Douglass<\/strong> on two different occasions in 2022.<\/p>\n

Stanford placed second in 3:26.98, more than seven seconds behind Virginia but still the fourth-best mark in the country behind Virginia, Florida and Tennessee. Torri Huske<\/strong> split 48.22 on butterfly, and she teamed with Natalie Mannion<\/strong>,\u00a0Lucy Bell<\/strong> and\u00a0Lillie Nordmann<\/strong> in the runnerup effort. Third went to NC State’s\u00a0Kennedy Noble<\/strong>,\u00a0Aubree Brouwer<\/strong>,\u00a0Leah Shackley<\/strong> and\u00a0Erika Pelaez<\/strong> in 3:27.08, with Pelaez closing in 46.52 to nearly catch Stanford for the second spot.<\/p>\n

Regarding history’s quickest all-time 100 fly splits,\u00a0Maggie Mac Neil<\/strong> was the standard-bearer at 48.76 until last month, when Gretchen Walsh clocked 47.15 at the Eddie Reese Texas Showdown. Walsh edged that time in Friday’s record-setting performance while Huske surpassed Mac Neil’s previous top mark by a half-second with her 48.22 split, quicker than anyone in history aside from Walsh.<\/p>\n

Since breaking the 800 free relay record three days earlier, Virginia has owned the all-time records in all five relays contested in college swimming, with the Walsh sisters a part of each. This latest record-crushing performance was largely possible thanks to their versatility.<\/p>\n

On different occasions during their college careers, Gretchen has handled the backstroke and butterfly legs of UVA’s record-setting relays, and she is also the fastest swimmer ever in the 100-yard free while Alex has switched between breaststroke and butterfly depending on the composition of the UVA roster. After focusing on breaststroke in 2023 while Gretchen swam back and Douglass fly, Alex moved to butterfly in 2024 to make up for Douglass’ departure while accounting for Nocentini’s arrival, only to switch again this year with Curzan now on the Cavaliers roster.<\/p>\n

Now, with Alex swimming her fifth year and Gretchen a senior ineligible to continue racing for Virginia beyond this season, this one-year team-up with Curzan could allow Virginia to post records that stand for years to come.<\/p>\n