Virginia vs. Navy
- Saturday, September 28th, 2024
- AFC Pool, Charlottesville, VA
- Dual Meet Format
- SCY
- Full Results
The US Naval Academy and University of Virginia swim teams kicked off the fall dual meet schedule this morning in Charlottesville. After a joint practice Friday, the two teams squared off today in what could be called an off-distance combined intrasquad meet, as each team split their squads into two: Blue and Orange for Virginia and Blue and Gold for Navy.
Virginia’s split squads swept the competition for both the men and the women, with the UVA Orange team claiming the overall title.
The meet began with a mixed 200 medley relay. Virginia opted to swim this event as a class competition, rather than by the normal intrasquad teams, and the seniors won with a time of 1:28.50. Tim Connery led off with a 21.75, fifth-year Noah Nichols split a quick 23.35 on breast, Gretchen Walsh threw down a 21.65 on fly, and Maxine Parker anchored in 21.75.
That split by Walsh looks to be the 2nd-fastest ever, behind only her 21.50 from a January dual meet. Walsh appears to be picking back right where she left off last season, where she rewrote the record books on multiple occasions in fly, back, and free.
Video courtesy of UVA Swimming
Teammate Claire Curzan made her official UVA debut in this event, splitting 22.29 on the fly leg for the junior team, while Anna Moesch had the fastest female anchor leg with a 21.52 for the freshmen.
The meet ended with a mixed 200 free relay, for which UVA stuck to the Blue/Orange intrasquad teams. The Virginia Orange won with a 1:22.65, highlighted by a 20.73 anchor leg from Walsh.
Women’s Meet
Scores:
- UVA Orange – 441
- UVA Blue – 387
- Navy Gold – 212
- Navy Blue – 203
Gretchen Walsh (UVA Orange) and Claire Curzan (UVA Blue) led the women with three individual victories each. Walsh, the fastest woman ever in both the SCY and LCM versions of the 100 fly, swept the butterfly events with a 22.68 in the 50 fly and a 1:20.31 in the 150 fly. To provide some perspective, she went out in 23.51/27.57, hitting the 100 mark at 51.08, a time which nearly would’ve made the A-final at last season’s NCAA championships, before closing in 29.23. She also won the 100 IM in 52.63, a time which appears to be the 4th-fastest performance ever.
Women’s 100 IM, Top Performances*:
- Kate Douglass — 51.97 (2023)
- Gretchen Walsh — 52.09 (2022)
- Kate Douglass — 52.48 (2020)
- Gretchen Walsh — 52.63 (2024)
- Kate Douglass — 52.73 (2022)
- Kate Douglass — 53.01 (2022)
- Katie Meili — 53.02 (2014)
- Alex Walsh — 53.08 (2021)
- Alex Walsh — 53.23 (2023)
- Gretchen Walsh — 53.54 (2021)
*verifying times for an event not typically raced at official meets is difficult, so if you know of a swim we missed, please let us know in the comments.
Video courtesy of UVA Swimming
Curzan, who transferred from Stanford a year ago and red-shirted last season, also won three individual events. She got going with a 1:15.34 in the 150 freestyle, leading a Cavalier sweep of the top eight spots. Next, she took the 50 back in 24.01, exactly three-quarters of a second shy of her best from the 2023 NCAA Championships. She closed out her individual events with a 1:21.47 win in the 150 back.
Aimee Canny helped the UVA Orange team to victory with a 1:33.48 win in the 150 breast and a 2:46.87 in the 300 free. In the latter event, she split 26.33 on the final 50 to pass her Orange teammate Cavan Gormsen, who led for most of the race and finished 2nd in 2:47.35. Gormsen had won the 600 free earlier in the session with a time of 5:47.35.
Zoe Skirboll won the 50 breast for Orange in 27.92, followed by Olympian Emma Weber, who took 2nd in 28.43. Weber also finished 6th in the 300 IM (3:17.12) and 8th in the 150 breast (1:39.88).
The UVA women brought in the top-ranked recruiting class in the nation this year, and freshmen Leah Hayes and Anna Moesch each picked up wins, with Hayes winning the 300 IM in 3:02.54 and Moesch taking the 50 free with a 22.41 to Maxine Parker‘s 22.45 in an exciting race.
The two teams split the diving results, as Jessica Buntman, representing UVA’s Orange team won with a score of 249.00 on the 1m, and Navy (Gold)’s Kim MacKenzie won the 3m with a 275.40. Since UVA opted to exhibition the 1m, MacKenzie also officially won the 1m with a score of 240.60, helping the Navy Gold team to a win over their intrasquad rivals.
On the swimming side, the Navy women, who are the defending Patriot League champs, managed to push the Cavaliers in a few events, especially the stroke 50s. In the 50 breast, Sydney Bare (Blue) took 4th with a 29.08. Catherine Weaverling (Blue) touched 4th in the 50 fly with a 24.76, just 0.16s away from 2nd. Weaverling also had the fastest 200 free relay split for the Navy women with a 23.25 anchor leg.
Men
Scores:
- UVA Blue – 363
- UVA Orange – 318
- Navy Blue – 282
- Navy Gold – 230
It was a closer affair on the men’s side, but both UVA teams still finished squarely on top.
The Navy men won the first individual event of the session in a battle of top-ranked freshmen. David King, the #8 recruit in the Class of 2024, led early for UVA Orange, but Dean Jones (a 2024 honorable mention) moved into first by the 150. He maintained a narrow lead until King knocked out a 26.99 split to move into 1st with 150 yards to go. Jones split 25.08 on the final 50 to touch first, 5:23.71 to 5:23.78, and pick up 20 points for the Navy Gold team.
The Cavaliers swept the rest of the swimming events, as Jack Aikins and Spencer Nicholas each took three events.
Aikins, who redshirted last year to focus on international competition, got going by holding off UVA Blue teammate Hayden Bellotti in the 150 free, 1:09.75 to 1:09.91. Aikins won the 150 back by nearly a second (1:14.14), and then beat Noah Nichols (Orange) 48.61 to 48.68 in the 100 IM.
Nichols swept the breaststroke events with a 24.46 in the 50 breast and a 1:24.46 in the 150 breast. Nichols, a fifth-year, finished in the top six in both breaststroke events at NCAAs last year, and his return is big for UVA, who didn’t have any swimmers in the discipline at NCAAs.
Nicholas, who we ranked as the #6 recruit in the Class of 2024, made his presence immediately known with a trio of victories for UVA Blue. He opened with a 21.79 in the 50 back, took the 150 fly in 1:16.56, and finished with a 20.82 in the 50 fly.
Matt Styczen (Orange) won the 300 IM in 2:49.86, while Connor Boyle took the 50 free in 20.14 for the UVA Blue team.
Jones and King squared off again towards the end of the session in the 300 freestyle. This time, King led from beginning to end, and won by over two seconds, touching with a 2:32.83.
Navy’s Blue team got 40 points from diver Blake Shaw, who officially swept the diving events with scores of 307.65 (1m) and 285.63 (3m). UVA’s Nicholas Sanders actually had the highest points in the 3m with a score of 317.92, but the Cavalier divers exhibitioned that event.
What’s the purpose of making a dive or swim an “exhibition”? Article said that one of the Navy swimmers had one swim that was “exhibitioned”, but not the other.
The two most common uses are:
1) Event or roster limits (swim can’t score, but coaches still want to see it), or
2) To keep the score artificially close (which wouldn’t have been the case with the Navy swimmer here).
If you’re referring to the final paragraph, UVA exhibitioned the 3m diving, which gave the Navy diver the official win. I’ve tweaked the wording to make that clearer.
Can anyone tell me the purpose of “exhibitioning” a swim or dive? I thought it might be eligibility related, but doesn’t this article say that one of the Navy swimmers did it with one dive but not the other?
Did Alex swim?
no, SS reported two weeks ago that she is out with a minor knee procedure. https://swimswam.com/alex-walsh-to-undergo-meniscus-precidure-not-expected-to-impact-ncaa-season/
Petition for GW to do a 200 fly at midseason
Curzan swimming the 150 Free is giving me a glimmer of hope that she will add the 200 Free to her international lineup since she has proven herself a good freestyler and of course she excels at the 200 Back. 200 Free could definitely be in her wheelhouse. USA is really subpar in that event and I truly believe Curzan could’ve made the Olympic team as a relay swimmer had she focused on that event for her trials lineup instead of the 100 Fly.
SCY is much different than LCM. I don’t think she’s going 1:57 or better in the LCM 200 Free.
Which is why I suggested Curzan could start to train for the event (200 Free). Similar to how Kate Douglass had a natural.talent for the 200 Breast and 200 IM but had to train for those events specifically since she had not already done so as much prior to UVA. I wasn’t suggesting Curzan could swim faster than a 1:57 right now but I think with proper training she could get in the 1:55 or lower range.
Anything is possible but if anyone (coaches) thought she was capable of going 1:57 or better, I have to assume she’d swim it in a meet and/or train for it.
FWIW, the 22.29 fly split Curzan put down in the 200 MR yesterday was faster than any split at last year’s NCAAs and would have been No. 2 (behind G. Walsh) at the 2023 NCAAs.
Shows how ridiculous Walsh’s 21.65 was yesterday!
Olivia Peoples was the second fastest I groove with a 22.42
The only faster 2023 split was Lexi Cuomo, not Walsh, at 22.10.
It would have been No. 2 behind Morgan Scott in 2022 (22.26), and No. 1 at NCAAs in 2021.
That’s a 22.29 split in September.
I wonder what will be faster at the end of the year in the medley relay – Gretchen on back or on fly? I think Curzan will likely do whatever Gretchen doesn’t do, with Alex on breaststroke duties and either Parker or Moesch on anchor
With Curzan going 22.2 without a flying start already, I have to think it will be Walsh, Walsh, Curzan, Moesch for the 200 Medley Relay.
Moesch has to sit out one relay and she’s an excellent 200 free swimmer. Wouldn’t be surprised if Parker gets the anchor on one of the medley relays, Moesch gets the other, and they both swim the 800 free relay.
What relay does Alex sit out? Maybe 200 free? Gretchen/Curzan/Moesch/Parker seems pretty deadly
Curzan also has a 1:42.4.
Must be nice to be able to choose from the Walsh sisters, Curzan, Canny, Tiltmann, Parker, Moesch, Hayes, and Gormsen for the 800 free relay at ACCs and NCAAs.
If they want to take another shot at that iconic Stanford record, they could go both Walshes, Canny, and Curzan at ACCs. Their flat start bests add to 6:46.62. The record is 6:45.91.
UVA’s B squad 800 FR could easily be a top 5 relay among all NCAA teams. That’s pretty amazing. Actually, that’s probably the case with all of their B relays.
Canny would be on the relay before Moesch or Parker. I’m hoping Todd will finally give in and have them swim the 800 FR at the Tennessee Invite since he usually skips that event in early/mid season meets. That way if they don’t break it then they have a chance at ACCs. I just don’t believe in this all-in strategy of only swimming it once before NCs.
Walsh/Walsh/Curzan/Moesch. G Walsh is untouchable in a 50 back.
Emma Weber and Zoe Skirboll are both, potentially, faster than A Walsh on 50 Breast.
Other than an untouchable record, what does it even matter? There is almost no racing order where 2x Walsh, Curzan, plus one aren’t contending for a title.