2023 NCAA Division I Women’s Championships: Day 1 Relay Split Analysis

2023 NCAA WOMEN’S SWIMMING AND DIVING CHAMPIONSHIPS

Day one of the NCAA Championships is always a big relay day, as both the 200 medley and 800 free relays are contested. In this article, we look at all of splits clocked by every swimmer on both relays.

Virginia won both relays, clocking a 1:31.54 to break the American, NCAA, and US Open record in the 200 medley relay and swimming a 6:49.82 in the 800 free relay.

200 Medley Relay

Virginia had fastest splits in the field for three out of the four strokes in this race, as Gretchen Walsh (22.77), Lexi Cuomo (22.10), and Kate Douglass (20.34) were the top backstroke, butterfly, and freestyle swimmers respectively. Douglass’s split was the second-fastest 50 free split of all-time, only behind Anna Hopkin’s 20.27 from 2020.

Anna Elendt of Texas posted the top breast split at 25.54. Her split made her the third-fastest 50 breast relay performer of all-time, behind Lilly King (25.36) and Hannah Bach (25.51).

Back

Team Swimmer Time
Virginia Gretchen Walsh 22.77
NC State Katharine Berkoff 22.88
Stanford Claire Curzan 23.26
Cal Isabelle Stadden 23.57
Georgia Eboni McCarty 23.60
Texas Olivia Bray 23.72
Louisville Abby Hart 23.75
Ohio State Nyah Funderburke 23.83
Arkansas Andrea Sansores 23.84
Alabama Rhyan White 23.91
Missouri Meredith Rees 24.06
Auburn Meghan Lee 24.14
Tennessee Josephine Fuller 24.17
UNC Greer Pattison 24.19
Michigan Noelle Kaufmann 24.29
Indiana Anna Peplowski 24.34
Duke Emma Shuppert 24.47
Kentucky Caitlin Brooks 24.51
Florida State Tania Quaglieri 24.55
Northwestern Justine Murdock 24.57
USC Caroline Famous 24.59
Texas A&M Jordan Buechler 24.88
UCLA Sophia Kosturos 24.97

Breast

Team Swimmer Time
Texas Anna Elendt 25.54
NC State Heather MacCausland 25.69
Tennessee Mona McSharry 26.01
USC Kaitlyn Dobler 26.15
Ohio State Hannah Bach 26.22
Virginia Alex Walsh 26.3
UNC Skyler Smith 26.37
Cal Jade Neser 26.67
Alabama Avery Wiseman 26.75
Duke Kaelyn Girdley 26.81
Kentucky Denise Phelan 26.83
Georgia Zoie Hartman 26.86
Michigan Letitia Sim 26.88
Indiana Noelle Peplowski 26.96
Louisville Ceclia Viberg 26.97
Arkansas Alessia Ferraguti 27.11
Northwestern Hannah Brunzell 27.31
UCLA Eva Carlson 27.33
Stanford Allie Raab 27.34
Auburn Stasya Makarova 27.49
Missouri Malin Grosse 27.53
Florida State Julia Mansson 27.91
Texas A&M Andrea Perttula 28

Fly

Team Swimmer Time
Virginia Lexi Cuomo 22.1
Texas Emma Sticklen 22.32
Ohio State Katherine Zenick 22.38
Florida State Jenny Halden 22.40
NC State Kylee Alons 22.59
Louisville Christiana Regenauer 22.77
Cal Mia Kragh 22.77
Alabama Emily Jones 22.88
Stanford Emma Wheal 22.9
Northwestern Miriam Guavera 22.93
Indiana Elizabeth Broshears 23.15
Texas A&M Olivia Theall 23.2
USC Anicka Delgado 23.24
UCLA Gabby Dang 23.25
Michigan Natalie Kan 23.26
Missouri Taylor Williams 23.37
Tennessee Sara Stotler 23.4
UNC Ellie Vannote 23.46
Arkansas Bella Cothern 23.5
Auburn Claudia Thamm 23.52
Duke Aleyna Ozkan 23.56
Georgia Callie Dickinson 23.86
Kentucky Lydia Hanlon 23.91

Free

Team Swimmer Time
Virginia Kate Douglass 20.34
Louisville Gabi Albiero 20.88
UNC Grace Countie 20.99
NC State Abby Arens 21.26
Alabama Kalia Antoniou 21.29
Ohio State Teresa Ivan 21.5
Indiana Kristina Paegle 21.51
USC Hanna Henderson 21.54
Texas Grace Cooper 21.64
Cal Emma Davidson 21.74
Michigan Linsday Flynn 21.81
Auburn Lexie Mulvihill 21.85
Georgia Sloan Reinstein 21.86
Duke Tatum Wall 21.88
UCLA Claire Grover 21.88
Stanford Amy Tang 21.94
Tennessee Jasmine Rumley 22.04
Florida State Alexandra Dicks 22.07
Arkansas Kobie Melton 22.08
Missouri Alex Moderski 22.1
Northwestern Jamie Brennan 22.14
Texas A&M Bobbie Kennett 22.18
Kentucky Kaitlyn Wheeler 22.3

800 Free Relay

The fastest swimmer leading off the 800 free relay was Torri Huske, who clocked a 1:42.28. She was a bit slower than her leadoff time of 1:41.93 from last year. Virginia’s Aimee Canny was very close behind Huske on the leadoff, touching just 0.06 seconds behind her with a new best time of 1:42.34. Anna Peplowski had a big leadoff swim, dropping around half a second off her best time of 1:43.33 to go 1:42.86.

Alex Walsh posted the fastest rolling split by over a second, as she swam a 1:41.18. This time is a significant improvement from the 1:41.92 she clocked last year. Behind Walsh were Stanford’s Kayla Wilson (1;42.22) and Taylor Ruck (1:42.23). Ruck swam the fastest split of the field in this relay last year, having gone 1:40.49.

Zoie Hartman, as always, was clutch for Georgia, clocking a 1:42.50 split (the fourth-fastest in the field) to help Georgia go from sixth to first in the ‘B’ heat and place eighth overall.

Leadoff

Team Swimmer Time
Stanford Torri Huske 1:42.28
Virginia Aimme Canny 1:42.34
Indiana Anna Peplowski 1:42.86
Texas Kelly Pash 1:43.08
Tennessee Brooklyn Douthwright 1:43.44
Ohio State Amy Fulmer 1:43.69
Texas A&M Chloe Stepanek 1:43.69
Florida Ekaterina Nikonova 1:43.83
NC State Abbey Webb 1:43.88
Duke Sally Foley 1:43.93
Kentucky Izzy Gati 1:44.04
Cal Mia Motekaitis 1:44.10
Virginia Tech Emma Atkinson 1:44.12
Wisconsin Abby Carlson 1:44.62
Auburn Polina Nevmovenko 1:44.89
Louisville Tristen Ulett 1:45.73
Georgia Sloane Reinstein 1:46.19
UCLA Rachel Rhee 1:46.37

Rolling Splits

Team Swimmer Time
Virginia Alex Walsh 1:41.18
Stanford Kayla Wilson 1:42.22
Stanford Taylor Ruck 1:42.23
Georgia Zoie Hartman 1:42.50
Virginia Ella Nelson 1:42.92
Texas Olivia Bray 1:43.26
Virginia Reilly Tiltmann 1:43.38
Florida Micayla Cronk 1:43.53
Louisville Paige Hetrick 1:43.54
Tennessee Julia Mrozinski 1:43.69
Cal Ayla Spitz 1:43.84
Ohio State Katherine Zenick 1:43.93
Wisconsin Blaire Stoneburg 1:43.95
Wisconsin Phoebe Bacon 1:44.00
Stanford Lillie Nordmann 1:44.04
Cal Lea Polonsky 1:44.32
Florida Talia Bates 1:44.38
Texas Erica Sullivan 1:44.58
Texas Kyla Leibel 1:44.63
Tennessee Sara Stotler 1:44.64
Kentucky Kaitlyn Wheeler 1:44.70
Cal Rachel Klinker 1:44.83
NC State Annabel Crush 1:44.84
Georgia Dune Coetzee 1:44.89
Indiana Mac Looze 1:45.23
Kentucky Grace Frericks 1:45.28
Indiana Ching Hwee Gan 1:45.31
Ohio State Felicia Pasadyn 1:45.33
Auburn Emily Hetzer 1:45.44
Georgia Jillian Barczyk 1:45.54
Louisville Ella Welch 1:45.54
Indiana Kristina Paegle 1:45.61
Virginia Tech Sarah Shackelford 1:45.71
Tennessee Elle Caldow 1:45.72
UCLA Katinra Bellio 1:45.77
UCLA Gizem Guvenc 1:45.79
NC State Sarah Watson 1:45.80
Virginia Tech Carmen Weiler Sastre 1:45.86
Virginia Tech Emily Claesson 1:45.96
Florida Tylor Mathieu 1:45.98
Louisville Fernanda Celidonia 1:46.00
Auburn Hannah Ownbey 1:46.17
Kentucky Beth McNeese 1:46.17
NC State Katherine Helms 1:46.33
Wisconsin Mackenzie McConagha 1:46.56
Texas A&M Jordan Buechler 1:46.68
UCLA Brooke Schaffer 1:46.73
Texas A&M Giulia Goerigk 1:47.09
Duke Catherine Purnell 1:47.20
Duke Tatum Wall 1:47.67
Duke Yi Xuan Chang 1:47.77
Texas A&M Abby Grottle 1:48.17
Ohio State Jessica Eden 1:48.31
Auburn Daisy Platts 1:48.32

In This Story

8
Leave a Reply

Subscribe
Notify of

8 Comments
newest
oldest most voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Awsi Dooger
1 year ago

The Australians already aren’t liking this meet. On the medley relay the largest gap between first and second among the first three legs was .22. Then Douglass shows up in the fastest discipline and puts .54 between herself and second place. That’s well over 2% faster.

I was surprised Curzan didn’t swim an 800 leg. I haven’t been following so maybe she never swims that event. Who cares? When you’re trying to take down a dynasty like Virginia you need a world Top 15 swimmer out there. She can fake short course via underwaters. Talent and adrenaline would take care of the rest. Yet another example of generalities overwhelming specifics.

Suzy Q
1 year ago

Stanford on GOD we’re gonna get you a breaststroker

oxyswim
Reply to  Suzy Q
1 year ago

Thomas was 58.6 today, they’ll be in a better spot with medleys next year.

Taa
1 year ago

Not many fast splits if I am being honest. 200 free just one sub 142 and medley the speed drops off pretty quick when you get 4 or 5 spots down the list

bubo
Reply to  Taa
1 year ago

More like 200 MID-ley relay am I right

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

You wonder why a 15 year old Claire Weinstein and and a 17 year old Bella Sims swam in the final of the women’s 4 x 200 meter freestyle relay at the 2022 World Aquatics Championships.

Swammer
1 year ago

Amazing split from Cuomo

Vaswammer
Reply to  Swammer
1 year ago

Whew, she cut it a little close with that 0.01 RT.

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 …

Read More »