{"id":607722,"date":"2025-03-20T11:06:56","date_gmt":"2025-03-20T18:06:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=607722"},"modified":"2025-03-20T13:55:29","modified_gmt":"2025-03-20T20:55:29","slug":"ncaa-womens-championships-day-2-prelims-gretchen-walsh-blasts-20-44-50-free-big-names-miss-in-500-free","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/ncaa-womens-championships-day-2-prelims-gretchen-walsh-blasts-20-44-50-free-big-names-miss-in-500-free\/","title":{"rendered":"NCAA Women&#8217;s Championships, Day 2 Prelims: Gretchen Walsh Blasts 20.44 50 Free; Big Names Miss in 500 Free"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>NCAA Women&#8217;s Championships, Day 2 Prelims: Gretchen Walsh Blasts 20.44 50 Free; Big Names Miss in 500 Free<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The first individual event of the NCAA Women&#8217;s Championships started out with some unexpected results as the top-two finishers from last season&#8217;s NCAA Championships did not advance in the 500 freestyle. Top contenders including Indiana&#8217;s\u00a0<strong>Anna Peplowski<\/strong>, Stanford&#8217;s\u00a0<strong>Aurora Roghair<\/strong>, Texas&#8217;\u00a0<strong>Jillian Cox<\/strong> and Virginia&#8217;s\u00a0<strong>Katie Grimes<\/strong> all comfortably advanced, but the anticipated race will go off without Florida teammates\u00a0<strong>Bella Sims<\/strong> and\u00a0<strong>Emma Weyant<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>The session also included qualifying in the 200 IM and 50 freestyle, with 1-meter diving and the 200 freestyle relay to come later in the day. The medley event set up a showdown between two-time Olympians\u00a0<strong>Alex Walsh<\/strong> (Virginia) and <strong>Torri Huske<\/strong> (Stanford) while Virginia&#8217;s\u00a0<strong>Gretchen Walsh<\/strong> put on her usual show in the 50 free with the third-fastest mark in prelims to comfortably lead all qualifiers and scare her own American, NCAA and U.S. Open records.<\/p>\n<p>After the first evening of competition, Stanford and Virginia are tied for first lace with 74 points each, with both teams having first and second-place finishes in the relay events. Florida is third (60), followed by Texas (55) and Michigan (46).<\/p>\n<pre>Women - Team Rankings - Through Event 2                      \r\n \r\n  1. Stanford                           74   1. Virginia                           74\r\n  3. Florida                            60   4. Texas                              55\r\n  5. Michigan                           46   6. California                         44\r\n  7. Louisville                         42   8. Indiana                            36\r\n  9. Tennessee                          34  10. Wisconsin                          30\r\n 11. Southern California                28  12. NC State                           27\r\n 13. Arizona St                         22  14. Georgia                            12\r\n 15. Alabama                            10  16. Ohio St                             8\r\n 17. Virginia Tech                       6  17. Texas A&amp;M                           6\r\n 19. Lsu                                 4  20. UNC                                 2<\/pre>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/meet\/ncaa-division-i-womens-championships\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Meet Coverage<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/swimmeetresults.tech\/NCAA-Division-I-Women-2025\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Live Results<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>500 Freestyle<\/h2>\n<p>Last year&#8217;s top-three finishers in the event all raced in heat eight. Peplowski and defending champion <strong>Bella Sims<\/strong> of Florida established an edge on the field early, but Sims faded badly and ended up five seconds behind Peplowski. The Indiana senior came in at 4:33.93 while Sims ended up third in the heat at 4:38.92, six-and-a-half seconds slower than she swam in her title-winning effort last year and 10 seconds off her best time. Sims ended up 17th in the event, 16-hundredths away from earning a second swim.<\/p>\n<p>Fellow Gator <strong>Emma Weyant<\/strong>, the runnerup finisher at last year&#8217;s meet, ended up fifth in the heat at 4:39.24, and she did not advance to the evening session. Florida did have some good news as <strong>Julie Brousseau<\/strong> clocked 4:37.25 in the same heat for ninth overall while <strong>Mabel Zavaros<\/strong> moved up to also reach the B-final, clocking 4:38.17. However, the team&#8217;s two most highly-acclaimed swimmers missing out entirely will sting as the Gators attempt to return to the top-five i nthe team standings.<\/p>\n<p>Stanford&#8217;s\u00a0<strong>Aurora Roghair<\/strong> followed up her career-best 1:41.89 split on Stanford&#8217;s first-place 800 free relay by dominating her heat of 500 qualifying. Roghair trailed USC&#8217;s\u00a0<strong>Claire Tuggle<\/strong> in the early going, but she accelerated through the middle and latter portions of the race to open up up a advantage of more than a bodylength. Roghair finished in 4:34.87 for the second-best time of the morning behind Roghair.<\/p>\n<p>In the last heat, a pair of highly-ranked first-year collegians raced in the middle lanes. Texas&#8217;\u00a0<strong>Jillian Cox<\/strong> came into the meet as the top seed, and she held off Virginia&#8217;s\u00a0<strong>Katie Grimes<\/strong> to win their heat, 4:35.84 to 4:36.03. Indiana&#8217;s\u00a0\u00a0<strong>Ching Gan<\/strong> swam a personal best time of 4:36.97 to place third in the heat and book her spot in the A-final. Virginia got two swimmers into the top as <strong>Cavan Gormsen<\/strong> was fifth (4:36.15), and rounding out the A-final were Georgia&#8217;s\u00a0<strong>Rachel Stege<\/strong> (4:36.41) and Ohio State&#8217;s\u00a0<strong>Mila Nikanorov <\/strong>(4:37.01).<\/p>\n<p><strong>Justina Kozan<\/strong> posted the fastest time entering the circle-seeded heats at 4:38.00, knocking a half-second from her lifetime best. Georgia&#8217;s\u00a0<strong>Abby McCulloh<\/strong>, last year&#8217;s national champion in the 1650 free, also advanced with her time of 4:37.78, and the last swimmer to make it back was Cal&#8217;s\u00a0<strong>Maya Gehringer<\/strong> at 4:38.76. That mark was just a tick quicker than the 4:38.87 it took for a top-16 slot at last year&#8217;s NCAA Championships.<\/p>\n<pre><b>Event 3  Women 500 Yard Freestyle<\/b>\r\n==================================================================\r\n         NCAA: N 4:24.06  3\/16\/2017 Katie Ledecky, Stanford\r\n         Meet: M 4:24.06  3\/16\/2017 Katie Ledecky, Stanford\r\n     American: A 4:24.06  3\/16\/2017 Katie Ledecky, Stanford\r\n      US Open: O 4:24.06  3\/16\/2017 Katie Ledecky, Stanford\r\n    Name                 Year School               Seed    Prelims        \r\n==================================================================\r\n<b>                      === Preliminaries ===                       <\/b>\r\n \r\n  1 Peplowski, Anna        SR Indiana           4:33.86    4:33.93  \r\n    r:+0.73  23.91        50.16 (26.25)\r\n        1:17.44 (27.28)     1:45.14 (27.70)\r\n        2:13.08 (27.94)     2:41.08 (28.00)\r\n        3:09.42 (28.34)     3:37.50 (28.08)\r\n        4:05.76 (28.26)     4:33.93 (28.17)\r\n  2 Roghair, Aurora        SR Stanford          4:31.63    4:34.87  \r\n    r:+0.79  25.88        53.55 (27.67)\r\n        1:21.33 (27.78)     1:48.98 (27.65)\r\n        2:16.65 (27.67)     2:44.17 (27.52)\r\n        3:11.60 (27.43)     3:39.14 (27.54)\r\n        4:07.00 (27.86)     4:34.87 (27.87)\r\n  3 Cox, Jillian           SO Texas             4:30.68    4:35.84  \r\n    r:+0.66  25.67        53.36 (27.69)\r\n        1:21.06 (27.70)     1:49.17 (28.11)\r\n        2:17.23 (28.06)     2:45.42 (28.19)\r\n        3:13.50 (28.08)     3:41.25 (27.75)\r\n        4:09.00 (27.75)     4:35.84 (26.84)\r\n  4 Grimes, Katie          FR Virginia          4:32.69    4:36.03  \r\n    r:+0.67  25.19        53.09 (27.90)\r\n        1:21.25 (28.16)     1:49.26 (28.01)\r\n        2:17.46 (28.20)     2:45.49 (28.03)\r\n        3:13.67 (28.18)     3:41.41 (27.74)\r\n        4:09.25 (27.84)     4:36.03 (26.78)\r\n  5 Gormsen, Cavan         SO Virginia          4:35.60    4:36.15  \r\n    r:+0.69  26.11        54.18 (28.07)\r\n        1:22.15 (27.97)     1:50.22 (28.07)\r\n        2:17.84 (27.62)     2:45.32 (27.48)\r\n        3:12.80 (27.48)     3:40.61 (27.81)\r\n        4:08.60 (27.99)     4:36.15 (27.55)\r\n  6 Stege, Rachel          SR Georgia           4:34.27    4:36.41  \r\n    r:+0.74  25.68        53.30 (27.62)\r\n        1:21.03 (27.73)     1:48.92 (27.89)\r\n        2:16.93 (28.01)     2:44.92 (27.99)\r\n        3:13.04 (28.12)     3:41.20 (28.16)\r\n        4:09.08 (27.88)     4:36.41 (27.33)\r\n  7 Gan, Ching             SR Indiana           4:37.49    4:36.97  \r\n    r:+0.62  25.66        53.42 (27.76)\r\n        1:21.43 (28.01)     1:49.69 (28.26)\r\n        2:17.86 (28.17)     2:45.91 (28.05)\r\n        3:13.95 (28.04)     3:41.89 (27.94)\r\n        4:09.69 (27.80)     4:36.97 (27.28)\r\n  8 Nikanorov, Mila        FR OSU               4:37.43    4:37.01  \r\n    r:+0.65  26.12        53.73 (27.61)\r\n        1:21.79 (28.06)     1:49.98 (28.19)\r\n        2:18.25 (28.27)     2:46.23 (27.98)\r\n        3:14.27 (28.04)     3:42.33 (28.06)\r\n        4:09.97 (27.64)     4:37.01 (27.04)<\/pre>\n<h2>200 IM<\/h2>\n<p><strong>Torri Huske<\/strong> has twice been the national runnerup in the 200 IM, finishing behind\u00a0<strong>Alex Walsh<\/strong> in 2022 and\u00a0<strong>Kate Douglass<\/strong> in 2023, and her best time of 1:50.06 ranks third all-time. Now, Huske is in pole position to earn her first collegiate national title after clocking the top time in the 200 IM prelims. She started off her meet with a scintillating 20.39 anchor split on the Cardinal&#8217;s 200 medley relay, and in the morning session, she went 1:51.53 to lead all qualifiers.<\/p>\n<p>Walsh, meanwhile, is one of only two swimmers to ever break 1:50 in the event and a three-time national winner in this race during her undergraduate years, and she earned the fourth seed by winning her heat in 1:52.37. Walsh held off\u00a0<strong>Caroline Bricker<\/strong>, a Stanford sophomore who clocked a best time of 1:52.77 in the same heat. However, two impressive personal-best performances in prelims mean that the two favorites will not swim next to each other in the evening session.<\/p>\n<p>Cal&#8217;s\u00a0<strong>Lea Polonsky<\/strong>, fresh off a 1:41.42 split on her team&#8217;s 800 free relay Wednesday evening, stayed close to Huske in the final preliminary heat and closed the gap with a 31.79 breaststroke split that led the field. Polonsky broke 1:52 for the first time as she qualified second in 1:51.91.<\/p>\n<p>Texas fifth-year swimmer\u00a0<strong>Emma Sticklen<\/strong> finds herself in national contention in the 200 IM for the first time in her impressive college career. The two-time defending national champion in the 200 fly came into the NCAA Championships with a best time of 1:52.42, and she improved on that in the morning session with a time of 1:52.11. Sticklen held off Wisconsin&#8217;s <strong>Phoebe Bacon<\/strong>, another fifth-year, in the last heat, with Bacon going 1:52.86.<\/p>\n<p>Stanford&#8217;s\u00a0<strong>Lucy Bell<\/strong>\u00a0made it three Cardinal swimmers in the top heat as she clocked 1:53.44 for seventh, and fellow Stanford swimmers <strong>Lillie Nordmann<\/strong> and <strong>Emily Thompson<\/strong> qualified for the B-final. Tennessee&#8217;s <strong>Josephine Fuller<\/strong> was the last swimmer to reach the A-final with her time of 1:53.77. A time of 1:55.50 was required to score in the event, with Michigan&#8217;s\u00a0<strong>Letitia Sim<\/strong> the last swimmer in.<\/p>\n<pre><b>Event 4  Women 200 Yard IM<\/b>\r\n==================================================================\r\n         NCAA: N 1:48.37  3\/16\/2023 Kate Douglass, Virginia\r\n         Meet: M 1:48.37  3\/16\/2023 Kate Douglass, Virginia\r\n     American: A 1:48.37  3\/16\/2023 Kate Douglass, Virginia\r\n      US Open: O 1:48.37  3\/16\/2023 Kate Douglass, Virginia\r\n    Name                 Year School               Seed    Prelims        \r\n==================================================================\r\n<b>                      === Preliminaries ===                       <\/b>\r\n \r\n  1 Huske, Torri           JR Stanford          1:51.46    1:51.53  \r\n    r:+0.59  23.02        51.12 (28.10)\r\n        1:24.31 (33.19)     1:51.53 (27.22)\r\n  2 Polonsky, Lea          SR California        1:53.28    1:51.91  \r\n    r:+0.65  24.81        52.84 (28.03)\r\n        1:24.63 (31.79)     1:51.91 (27.28)\r\n  3 Sticklen, Emma         5Y Texas             1:52.42    1:52.11  \r\n    r:+0.65  23.45        51.08 (27.63)\r\n        1:24.65 (33.57)     1:52.11 (27.46)\r\n  4 Walsh, Alex            5Y Virginia          1:51.80    1:52.37  \r\n    r:+0.76  24.23        52.19 (27.96)\r\n        1:24.81 (32.62)     1:52.37 (27.56)\r\n  5 Bricker, Caroline      SO Stanford          1:52.97    1:52.77  \r\n    r:+0.65  24.73        53.36 (28.63)\r\n        1:25.89 (32.53)     1:52.77 (26.88)\r\n  6 Bacon, Phoebe          5Y Wisconsin         1:53.12    1:52.86  \r\n    r:+0.67  24.41        53.05 (28.64)\r\n        1:25.45 (32.40)     1:52.86 (27.41)\r\n  7 Bell, Lucy             JR Stanford          1:54.74    1:53.44  \r\n    r:+0.67  25.21        54.32 (29.11)\r\n        1:26.30 (31.98)     1:53.44 (27.14)\r\n  8 Fuller, Josephine      SR Tennessee         1:52.86    1:53.72  \r\n    r:+0.62  24.29        52.19 (27.90)\r\n        1:26.21 (34.02)     1:53.72 (27.51)<\/pre>\n<h2>50 Freestyle<\/h2>\n<p>The fastest swimmer in women&#8217;s collegiate swimming history scared one of her many records in the final heat of the prelims session. Virginia senior <strong>Gretchen Walsh<\/strong> owns the all-time best time in the 50 free at 20.37, more than four tenths quicker than history&#8217;s next-best performer,\u00a0<strong>Maggie Mac Neil<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>In her first individual race in Federal Way, Walsh annihilated her heat by a full second while posting a time of 20.44, seven hundredths off her own record. The time is actually the third-quickest ever recorded, with Walsh going 20.37 and 20.41 at last year&#8217;s meet. She did take down her own season top time of 20.60. Walsh will be heavily favored to defend her NCAA title in the evening session and to take another record shot.<\/p>\n<p>Louisville&#8217;s\u00a0<strong>Julia Dennis<\/strong> had the fastest non-Walsh time of the morning with her time of 21.25, not far off the 21.08 she posted at the ACC Championships to become the seventh-fastest swimmer ever in the event.\u00a0Tennessee&#8217;s\u00a0<strong>Camille Spink<\/strong> also had a strong prelims swim as she dominated heat eight in 21.34. The Tennessee sophomore ranks No. 13 all-time in the event at 21.23.<\/p>\n<p>Virginia put three swimmers into the A-final here as\u00a0<strong>Claire Curzan<\/strong> took fourth in 21.44 and\u00a0<strong>Maxine Parker<\/strong> tied for seventh in 21.63. Both swimmers joined Walsh on Virginia&#8217;s record-breaking 200 medley relay Wednesday, and they will be part of a heavily-favored 200 free relay Thursday evening. Pitt&#8217;s\u00a0<strong>Sophie Yendell<\/strong> got fifth in 21.54, followed by Alabama&#8217;s\u00a0<strong>Cadence Vincent\u00a0<\/strong>at 21.57. Louisville also went two-up as\u00a0<strong>Gabi Albiero<\/strong> tied Parker for the last spot in the final.<\/p>\n<p>Twenty-two swimmers cracked 22 in prelims, with Arizona State&#8217;s\u00a0<strong>Caroline Bentz<\/strong> beating\u00a0Washington State&#8217;s\u00a0<strong>Darcy Revitt<\/strong> by one hunredth, 21.89 to 21.90, for the last scoring slot.<\/p>\n<pre><b>Event 5  Women 50 Yard Freestyle<\/b>\r\n==================================================================\r\n         NCAA: N 20.37  3\/21\/2024 Gretchen Walsh, Virginia\r\n         Meet: M 20.37  3\/21\/2024 Gretchen Walsh, Virginia\r\n     American: A 20.37  3\/21\/2024 Gretchen Walsh, Virginia\r\n      US Open: O 20.37  3\/21\/2024 Gretchen Walsh, Virginia\r\n    Name                 Year School               Seed    Prelims        \r\n==================================================================\r\n<b>                      === Preliminaries ===                       <\/b>\r\n \r\n  1 Walsh, Gretchen        SR Virginia            20.60      20.44  \r\n     r:+0.72  9.93        20.44 (10.51)\r\n  2 Dennis, Julia          JR Louisville          21.08      21.25  \r\n    r:+0.63  10.19        21.25 (11.06)\r\n  3 Spink, Camille         SO Tennessee           21.23      21.34  \r\n    r:+0.66  10.28        21.34 (11.06)\r\n  4 Curzan, Claire         JR Virginia            21.26      21.44  \r\n    r:+0.69  10.34        21.44 (11.10)\r\n  5 Yendell, Sophie        5Y Pittsburgh          21.30      21.54  \r\n    r:+0.66  10.37        21.54 (11.17)\r\n  6 Vincent, Cadence       SO Alabama             21.59      21.57  \r\n    r:+0.67  10.49        21.57 (11.08)\r\n  7 Parker, Maxine         5Y Virginia            21.75      21.63  \r\n    r:+0.68  10.67        21.63 (10.96)\r\n  7 Albiero, Gabi          5Y Louisville          21.71      21.63  \r\n    r:+0.63  10.52        21.63 (11.11)<\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>NCAA Women&#8217;s Championships, Day 2 Prelims: Gretchen Walsh Blasts 20.44 50 Free; Big Names Miss in 500 Free The first individual event of the NCAA Women&#8217;s Championships started out with<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":607759,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,6],"tags":[52974,113975,101430,126572,65096,62445,58437,93508,132191,74161],"class_list":["post-607722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-college","tag-alex-walsh","tag-anna-peplowski","tag-aurora-roghair","tag-bella-sims","tag-emma-sticklen","tag-emma-weyant","tag-gretchen-walsh","tag-lea-polonsky","tag-ncaa-division-i-womens-championships","tag-torri-huske"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\r\n<title>NCAA Women&#039;s Championships: Gretchen Walsh Blasts 50 Free<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Gretchen Walsh swam the third-fastest time ever in the 50 free prelims while Bella Sims and Emma Weyant struggled in the 500 free.\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\r\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/ncaa-womens-championships-day-2-prelims-gretchen-walsh-blasts-20-44-50-free-big-names-miss-in-500-free\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"NCAA Women&#039;s Championships, Day 2 Prelims: Gretchen Walsh Blasts 20.44 50 Free; 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