The Division I Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships 2024 started in Athens, Georgia, with the 200m medley relay race. While Virginia had last year also won the title of the same NCAA Championships with a victorious 1:31:51, this time as well, Virginia’s star swimmer, Gretchen Walsh, has made history by clinching her best time stamp.
Walsh has recently been in the news for swimming the fastest 50m backstroke split in the history of the event with 22.10 in the 200m medley relay on the first night of the NCAA Championships. After that, she opened up about her run and how it just happened.
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Gretchen Walsh etches her name on the NCAA Championships
Interviewed by the Swimming World Magazine, the 3x World Championships medalist, Gretchen Walsh, stated, “It was a really great start. I didn’t do the 200 medley at ACCs, so I have no idea what I would have been there, but I don’t think it would have been that fast. I am really happy with that time.” The 21-year-old swimmer admitted that though she was quite nervous during her first leg, then she eventually picked up the confidence to surprisingly strike a decent win.
Putting the Cavaliers in the lead, the competitive American swimmer also claimed, “It is a huge statement (that we were so close to the record) because we were seeded second in the event – a little bit of underdog. Having that as our first event of the meet is a good teller of how we are all going to perform at this meet. Making memories like that is exciting.” At the medley relay, the rest of the work was taken up by teammates Jasmine Nocentini and Carly Novelline. Interestingly, that was not the only record of the day for Walsh.
Walsh is on a record-making spree
With her split in the medley relay, Walsh finally overcame Maggie MacNeil in the All-Time 50-yard Backstroke Splits. Last year, the two ran for the top spot neck-to-neck as MacNeil kept the top spot with a 22.52 split at the 2023 SEC Championships. Gretchen Walsh was sitting right behind her with 22.54 at the 2023 NCAA Championships. Notably, this year, Walsh once more dazzled in the pool one month back at the ACC Championships.
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In the ACC Championships, Gretchen Walsh broke the American record in 50-yard freestyle twice. In the prelims, she finished with 20.77s to break the American, US Open, and NCAA records. After that, she did it again in the final of the event with 20.57s. Alongside she also became the first woman to swim a sub-20 seconds split in 200m freestyle relay in just 19.95 seconds in the Championships. Riding on Gretchen Walsh’s tremendous start at almost every Championship, Virginia’s team swept all the events on day 2 of the 2024 ACC Swimming & Diving Championships at the Greensboro Aquatic Center.
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Bhujaya Ray Chowdhury