No Rust: After Almost a Year Hiatus from the 200 Fly, Alex Walsh Breaks NCAA Record

2024 ACC SWIMMING AND DIVING CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Tuesday, February 20 to Saturday, February 24, 2023
• Greensboro Aquatic Center, Greensboro, North Carolina
• Defending Champions: NC State men / Virginia women
• Full Event Schedule
• Championship Central
• Live Results
• Live Streaming
• Day 1 Finals Recap
• Day 2 Prelims Recap | Day 2 Finals Recap
• Day 3 Prelims Recap | Day 3 Finals Recap
• Day 4 Prelims Recap | Day 4 Finals Recap

While her younger sister Gretchen Walsh has been getting a lot of spotlight this week, Virginia senior Alex Walsh put up a statement swim of her own on Friday evening to open the finals session.

In the women’s 200 fly, Alex Walsh swam 1:49.16, which breaks the old NCAA Record of 1:49.51 done by Stanford’s Ella Eastin in 2018. The swim is also the second-fastest performance by anybody in history in this event, behind the 1:48.33 done by Regan Smith in a pro exhibition swim during an Arizona State-NC State dual meet in October.

What makes Walsh’s swim extra-interesting is that 1) she has never swum the race in long course and 2) she hasn’t swum the race in short course since finishing 2nd at NCAAs last year.

Splits Comparison:

Walsh was the ACC Record holder and 2023 NCAA runner-up in the 200 fly, swimming 1:50.23 at last year’s NCAA Championship meet to finish behind Emma Sticklen of Texas. Alex Walsh is now the fifth woman in history to go sub-1:50 in this race. While NCAA records have fallen by the fistful in recent years, this is only the second time this one has fallen since Elaine Breeden first cracked that barrier at 1:49.92 in 2009.

All-Time Top 10 Performers, Women’s 200 SCY Fly

1. Regan Smith, Sun Devil Post-Grad – 1:48.33 (2023)
2. Alex Walsh, Virginia – 1:49.16 (2024)
3. Ella Eastin, Stanford – 1:49.51 (2018)
4. Elaine Breeden, Stanford – 1:49.92 (2009)
5. Emma Sticklen, Texas – 1:49.95 (2023)
6. Alex Shackell, Carmel Swim Club – 1:50.15 (2023)
7. Louise Hansson, USC – 1:50.28 (2019)
8. Kelsi Dahlia, Louisville – 1:50.61 (2016)
9. Grace Oglesby, Louisville – 1:50.80 (2019)
10. Claire Curzan, TAC Titans – 1:50.85 (2022)

Of note on that list, Alex Shackell is still a year-and-a-half away from beginning her college career at Cal.

In addition to the 200 IM she won earlier this week (1:51.76), Walsh now has nine individual ACC event titles, with one more shot on Saturday to make it a round ten. She’s the top seed in the 200 breast. If she doesn’t swim a 5th year (most of Virginia’s best swimmers have not), that would be the last individual ACC swim of her career.

In addition to the NCAA Record, she broke Kelsi Worrell’s Pool Record of 1:51.11 from the 2015 NCAA Championships, her own Conference Record of 1:50.23 from the 2023 NCAA Championships, and Grace Oglesby’s Conference Championship Record of 1:52.81 from the 2019 ACC Championships.