2023 DI Women’s NCAA Championships: Day 3 Relay Split Analysis

2023 NCAA WOMEN’S SWIMMING AND DIVING CHAMPIONSHIPS

Tonight, the finals of the women’s 400 medley relay at the 2023 NCAA Championships ensued, where Virginia won by over two seconds in a time of 3:22.39. They were slightly off their NCAA and US Open record time of 3:21.80 from ACCs.

Gretchen Walsh had the fastest backstroke leadoff time of 49.39, being the only woman in the field under 50 seconds. She was over a second slower than her time of 48.26 that was clocked in her individual 100 back race. Kate Douglass swam the fastest fly split of the field at 48.94, but she was also slower than her flat start time of 48.46 from earlier in the session. On breast, it was newly-crowned NCAA champ Lydia Jacoby who clocked the fastest split in the field at 56.78, while Taylor Ruck‘s 46.50 was the fastest freestyle split.

Alex Walsh had a very strong breast split of 56.79, just 0.01 slower than Jacoby and considerably faster than the 57.47 she clocked at ACCs. In fact, she was the only swimmer on UVA’s relay that improved from ACCs, despite the fact that she swam the most yardage out of any of her teammates today (having swum two 400 IMs). Meanwhile, G. Walsh raced two 100 backs and went from 49.25 at ACCs to 49.39 at NCAAs, Douglass raced two 100 flys and went from 48.25 to 48.94, and Aimee Canny raced two 200 frees and went from 46.86 to 47.27.

Another notable split was from Ohio State’s Amy Fulmer, who anchored in a 46.75 to clock the second sub-46 split of the field. In a race where the majority of the swimmers were slower than their individual races, Florida’s Nina Kucheran stood out, splitting 57.55 on breast after going 59.30 individually to finish 17th in prelims this morning.

Back

Team Swimmer Time
Virginia Gretchen Walsh 49.39
NC State Katharine Berkoff 50.1
Stanford Claire Curzan 50.81
Texas Olivia Bray 50.89
Cal Isabelle Stadden 51.04
Wisconsin Phoebe Bacon 51.42
Georgia Eboni McCarty 51.93
Tennessee Josephine Fuller 51.94
Florida Aris Runnels 51.97
UNC Sophie Lindner 52
Alabama Rhyan White 52
Missouri Meredith Rees 52.08
Auburn Ellie Waldrep 52.13
Louisville Abby Hay 52.15
Michigan Noelle Kaufmann 52.17
USC Aria Bernal 52.64
Ohio State Nyah Funderburke 52.79
Northwestern Justine Murdock 52.91
Texas A&M Jordan Buechler 53.28
Duke Emma Shuppert 53.39
UCLA Sophia Kosturos 53.53

Breast

Team Swimmer Time
Texas Lydia Jacoby 56.78
Virginia Alex Walsh 56.79
Tennessee Mona McSharry 57.18
USC Kaitlyn Dobler 57.22
NC State Heather MacCausland 57.3
Florida Nina Kucheran 57.47
Ohio State Josie Panitz 58.06
Duke Kaelyn Gridley 58.51
Michigan Letitia Sim 58.6
UNC Skyler Smith 58.72
Georgia Zoie Hartman 59
Texas A&M Bobbi Kennett 59.17
Stanford Allie Raab 59.2
Louisville Cecilia Viberg 59.29
Alabama Avery Wiseman 59.43
Cal Jade Neser 59.57
UCLA Eva Carlson 59.6
Northwestern Hannah Brunzell 59.62
Auburn Stasya Makarova 59.88
Missouri Katrina Brathwaite 59.95
Wisconsin Hazal Ozkan 1:00.58

Fly

Team Swimmer Time
Virginia Kate Douglass 48.94
Stanford Torri Huske 49.59
Louisville Gabi Albiero 49.86
NC State Kylee Alons 49.96
Texas Emma Sticklen 50.19
Ohio State Katherine Zenick 50.58
UNC Ellie Vannote 50.84
Northwestern Miriam Guavera 51.15
Tennessee Sara Stotler 51.18
Cal Mia Kragh 51.19
Auburn Meghan Lee 51.24
Florida Olivia Peoples 51.83
Alabama Emily Jones 51.89
Wisconsin Mallory Jump 51.95
USC Anicka Delgado 51.96
UCLA Gabby Dang 52.01
Georgia Callie Dickinson 52.11
Duke Aleyna Ozkan 52.14
Texas A&M Olivia Theall 52.24
Michigan Brady Kendall 52.28
Missouri Taylor Williams 52.35

Free

Team Swimmer Time
Stanford Taylor Ruck 46.5
Ohio State Amy Fulmer 46.75
Florida Micayla Cronk 47.09
NC State Abby Arens 47.21
Virginia Aimee Canny 47.27
Louisville Christiana Regenauer 47.28
Texas Kelly Pash 47.32
Alabama Kalia Antoniou 47.42
UNC Grace Countie 47.47
Michigan Linsday Flynn 47.47
Texas A&M Chloe Stepanek 47.6
Tennessee Brooklyn Douthwright 47.62
USC Hanna Henderson 47.74
Auburn Polina Nevmovenko 48.09
Cal Emma Davidson 48.16
UCLA Claire Grover 48.23
Wisconsin Abby Carlson 48.4
Duke Sarah Snyder 48.43
Missouri Molly Gowans 48.5
Northwestern Ashley Strouse 48.52
Georgia Sloane Reinstein 49.25

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CavaDore
1 year ago

Just think if Gretchen and Kate swam relay splits below their earlier record-breaking individual swims and if Canny swam closer to her split from ACCs (46.85). They would’ve broken 3:20. Yikes! That 400 MR must be so difficult to swim after giving it all earlier in the individual events though.

Last edited 1 year ago by CavaDore
Weinstein-Smith-Ledecky-Sims
1 year ago

Alex Walsh’s split is impressive after swimming the 400 IM earlier in the session.

As for the freestyle leg, Lexi Cuomo was robbed a relay spot.

Breezeway
Reply to  Weinstein-Smith-Ledecky-Sims
1 year ago

She can always prove it in the 100free on Saturday. Canny has been impressive this meet

About Yanyan Li

Yanyan Li

Although Yanyan wasn't the greatest competitive swimmer, she learned more about the sport of swimming by being her high school swim team's manager for four years. She eventually ventured into the realm of writing and joined SwimSwam in January 2022, where she hopes to contribute to and learn more about …

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