2024 Women’s Division I NCAA Championships: Day 1 Finals Live Recap

2024 WOMEN’S NCAA SWIMMING AND DIVING CHAMPIONSHIPS

• March 20-23, 2024
• Gabrielsen Natatorium, Athens, Georgia
• Short Course Yards (25 yards)
• Meet Central
• Psych Sheets
• SwimSwam Preview Index
• Live Results
• Live Stream
• SwimSwam Pick ’em Contest

Day 1 Finals Heat Sheets

Folks, we’ve made it: the 2024 Women’s NCAA Championships start tonight. The 200 medley relay and 800 freestyle relay kick things off in Athens, Georgia and even though it’s only two events on day one of four , there’s plenty of exciting swimming in store for this session.

Last year, Virginia won both the day 1 relays and went on to sweep all five relays, a feat which hadn’t been accomplished since 2018. The Cavaliers have not lost an NCAA Championship relay since the opening night of the 2022 NCAAs when they placed 2nd to Stanford in the 800 free relay.

The big choice the Cavaliers have ahead of them is how to use Gretchen Walsh this session. At ACCs, she skipped her usual 200 medley relay in favor of leading off the 800 freestyle relay, where she fired off a 1:40.23 for the third-fastest swim all-time. The relay was only .37 second off Stanford’s NCAA record and breaking that would give them all five NCAA relay records. Will Walsh make the same choice here at NCAAs, or maybe even race both relays and forgo one of the later ones?

That decision dictates how the session goes. If she swims both, then Virginia will dominate day 1. Leaving her off either relay opens the door–maybe only slightly–for another program to play upset. Ohio State had a great 200 medley relay at conferences and are the top seed. If they recapture that could make a run at the title. Similarly, Florida could spoil the Cavaliers’ dreams of another relay sweep in the 800 freestyle relay. The Gators set an SEC record of 6:49.65 at their conference championships as Bella Sims led off in a 200 free SEC record of 1:40.90.

Women’s 200 Medley Relay

• NCAA Record: 1:31.51 – Virginia (G. Walsh, A. Walsh, L. Cuomo, K. Douglass), 2023
• Meet Record: 1:31.51 — Virginia (G. Walsh, A. Walsh, L. Cuomo, K. Douglass), 2023
• American Record: 1:31.51 – Virginia (G. Walsh, A. Walsh, L. Cuomo, K. Douglass), 2023
• U.S. Open Record: 1:31.51 – Virginia (G. Walsh, A. Walsh, L. Cuomo, K. Douglass), 2023
• 2023 NCAA Champion: 1:31.51 – Virginia (G. Walsh, A. Walsh, L. Cuomo, K. Douglass)

Top 8:

1. Virginia (G. Walsh, Nocentini, Novelline, Parker) — 1:31.58
2. Ohio State (Funderburke, Bach, Zenick, Ivan) — 1:33.09
3. Florida (Runnels, Mayne, Peoples, Cronk) — 1:34.30
4. Cal — 1:34.55
5. Tennessee — 1:34.64
6. Texas — 1:34.74
7. USC — 1:34.81
8. Stanford — 1:35.10

DQs: NC State, Princeton

The Cavaliers wasted no time announcing their presence in Athens. This 200 medley win from Gretchen Walsh, Jasmine Nocetini, Carly Novelline, and Maxine Parker is Virginia’s ninth-straight relay win at the NCAA Championships, a streak which dates back to 2022.

Virginia dominated the race, winning by 1.51 seconds. They touched in 1:31.58, missing their own NCAA record from 2023 by just seven-hundredths. That’s an impressive feat, considering that 2023 relay had a 20.34 anchor from Kate Douglass.

G. Walsh got things started for Virginia with the fastest 50 backstroke split in history. She fired off a 22.10, eclipsing Maggie MacNeil‘s 22.52 mark by a monstrous .42 seconds. Nocentini followed up with a 25.79 breaststroke split, a few tenths slower than the 25.49 she swam at ACCs. The Cavaliers made an interesting choice to leave Alex Walsh off this relay, and went with Novelline on fly. She split 22.38, then Parker brought things home for the squad in 21.38.

After putting together an excellent swim at Big Tens, Ohio State–rocking some lovely football jerseys–improved on their conference championship swim by .38 seconds. The first three legs of their relay were all faster than they were in February: Nyah Funderburke went 23.44, improving from 23.61, Hannah Bach swam 25.68, dropping from 25.92, and KitKat Zenick improved from 22.45 to 22.33 here in Athens. They got a 21.64 anchor from Teresa Ivan to give them a combined time of 1:33.09 for 2nd place.

Florida’s squad of Aris Runnels (23.82), Molly Mayne (26.71), Olivia Peoples (22.42), and Micayla Cronk (21.35) added .12 seconds from their winning time at SECs as they took 3rd in 1:34.30. But from a points perspective, this is a huge upswing for them as they were disqualified last year.

Speaking of DQs, there were two in this event. For the team standings race, the notable one was NC State. The Wolfpack have the smallest rosters of schools projected to finish in the top 15 with just six individual qualifiers. It’s going to be a close race for the top 10, and now the Wolfpack are playing from behind. Katharine Berkoff split 20.35 on the anchor but was the one with an early take off (-0.17).

Within the top 8, the other two teams to drop time from their seed were Tennessee (5th, 1:34.64) and Stanford (8th, 1:35.10). On the Vols relay, Mona McSharry tied Bach for the fastest breaststroke split in the field with a 25.68. Meanwhile, Amy Tang had a big swim on the Cardinal relay, dropping a 21.23 anchor.

Women’s 800 Freestyle Relay

• NCAA Record: 6:45.91 — Stanford (S. Manuel, L. Neal, E. Eastin, K. Ledecky), 2017
• Meet Record: 6:45.91 — Stanford (S. Manuel, L. Neal, E. Eastin, K. Ledecky), 2017
• American Record: 6:45.91 — Stanford (S. Manuel, L. Neal, E. Eastin, K. Ledecky), 2017
• U.S. Open Record: 6:45.91 – Stanford (S. Manuel, L. Neal, E. Eastin, K. Ledecky), 2017
• 2023 NCAA Champion: 6:49.82 – Virginia (A. Canny, A. Walsh, R. Tiltmann, E. Nelson)

Top 8: 

1. Florida (Sims, Ivey, Weyant, Cronk) — 6:48.59
2. Tennessee (Douthwright, Spink, Mrozinski, Fuller) — 6:50.82
3. Stanford (Roghair, Nordmann, Mannion, Wilson) — 6:51.17
4. Virginia — 6:51.41
5. Indiana — 6:54.03
6. Georgia — 6:54.67
7. Texas — 6:54.68
8. Michigan — 6:54.70

The winning streak is over for the Cavaliers as they finished 4^th in the 800 freestyle relay.

Ahead of them, the Florida women swum to victory, moving up from their 6^th place finish in this event last year. In her first swim at the NCAA Championships, Bella Sims led the Gators off in 1:41.03, the fastest lead-off in the field. Isabel Ivey followed up with a 1:41 of her own, splitting 1:41.64 to extend the Gators’ lead.

Emma Weyant split 1:42.90 as the Gators remained clear of the field. Then in her second swim of the session, Cronk anchored in 1:43.02. The quartet clocked a new pool record along with a new program record of 6:48.59, improving on their 6:49.65 from SECs.

That swim came in spite of being without one of their best 200 freestylers, junior Ekaterina Nikonova, who injured her knee earlier this year and missed SECs and these NCAA Championships.

Tennessee also improved on their time from SECs, bettering their seed time by 2.51 seconds. The Volunteers (along with Stanford and Virginia) were also under the old pool record with their 2^nd place time of 6:50.82.

Brooklyn Douthwright led off in 1:42.45, putting Tennessee ahead of both Virginia and Stanford. The Volunteers moved into 2^nd place during freshman Camille Spink’s leg, thanks to her 1:42.08 split Julia Mrozinski dove in just ahead of Virginia’s Ella Nelson. Mrozinski split 1:43.81, then junior Josephine Fuller anchored in 1:42.48.

Stanford opened with Aurora Roghair (1:42.82), Lillie Nordmann (1:42.32), and Natalie Mannion (1:43.75). Over the final leg, Kayla Wilson ran down Virginia’s anchor Reilly Tiltmann. Wilson split 1:42.28, pulling the Cardinal even with Virginia then eventally passing them to take 3^rd in 6:51.17.

The Cavaliers finished 4^th as Aimee Canny (1:42.83), A. Walsh (1:41.88), Nelson (1:42.37), and Tiltmann (1:44.33) swam 6:51.41.

There was a big gap to 5^th place. After getting a huge opening swim from Anna Peplowski, who posted a 1:41.16, the Hoosiers were locked in a race with Georgia and Texas in the final heat. Kristina Paegle’s 1:43.47 split proved to be the difference maker, and Indiana took 5^th in 6:54.03 ahead of both Georgia and Texas.

Scores Thru Day 1

1. Florida — 72
2. Virginia — 70
3. Tennessee — 62
4. Stanford — 54
5. Texas — 50
6. Cal — 48
7. Indiana/USC/Ohio State — 36
8. (tie)
9. (tie)
10. Michigan — 32
11. Georgia — 26
12. Wisconsin/Louisville — 20
13. (tie)
14. Duke — 18
15. UNC — 14
16. Arizona State — 10
17. Virginia Tech — 8
18. Auburn/Texas A&M — 4
19. (tie)
20. Alabama — 2