Alex Walsh Opts For 200 Fly, Grimes Enters 1650 Free At 2025 NCAA Championships

2025 Women’s NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships

• March 19-22, 2025
• Weyerhaeuser King County Aquatics Center, Federal Way, Washington
• Short Course Yards (25 yards)
• Meet Central
• Pre-Scratch Psych Sheets
• Live Stream

The psych sheets for the 2025 Women’s NCAA Championships dropped on Tuesday, and given their star-studded roster, the event selections from the Virginia Cavaliers will always be a prominent topic of conversation.

The 2024 CSCAA Women’s Swimmer of the Year, Gretchen Walsh, has entered the same three events she did last season, as the fastest woman in the world will defend her titles in the 50 free, 100 free and 100 fly.

Walsh will be heavily favored to make it four in a row in the 100 free and win back-to-back titles in both the 50 free and 100 fly. She raced the 100 back at NCAAs in her first two seasons, and despite holding the U.S. Open Record in that event, is even better in the 100 fly.

The more notable entry selection is that of her older sister, Alex Walsh, who has two changes from her 2024 NCAA lineup.

A. Walsh will defend her title in the 200 IM on Day 2, and after declaring the 400 IM would no longer be in her championship program in January, she’s dropped that event from her schedule in favor in the 100 breast, which was expected.

The only question mark coming in for Walsh was if she would race the 200 breast or 200 fly on the final day of racing, and she’s opted for the 200 fly, an event she won in 2022 and finished as the runner-up in 2023. Last year, Walsh won the NCAA title in the 200 breast and recently won both races at the ACC Championships (where the schedule is different and they’re on different days).

Notable Entries – Virginia

• Gretchen Walsh – 50 free, 100 fly, 100 free
• Alex Walsh – 200 IM, 100 breast, 200 fly
• Claire Curzan – 50 free, 100 back, 200 back
• Katie Grimes – 500 free, 400 IM, 1650 free
• Aimee Canny – 500 free, 200 free, 200 breast

The two other Cavalier swimmers who figure to be multi-title threats at NCAAs are Claire Curzan and Katie Grimes, who had some interesting lineup decisions of their own.

Curzan, who will be making her NCAA Championships debut for Virginia after winning the national title in the 200 back as a freshman at Stanford in 2023, will race both backstrokes and the 50 free, a change from her debut NCAAs two years.

The two backstroke events were no-brainers for Curzan, but she’s decided to swim the 50 free on Day 2 of the meet instead of the 100 fly, avoiding the 100 back/100 fly double she took on in 2023. When she did the double two seasons ago, Curzan placed 3rd in the 100 back and 4th in the 100 fly.

In November, Curzan broke the NCAA Record in the 200 back (1:46.87), making her the top seed for the championship meet, while she comes in ranked 2nd in the 100 back and 4th in the 50 free.

Grimes, a freshman who joined the team for the second semester, had two clear events on her schedule in the 500 free and 400 IM, but had a decision for Day 4 of the meet.

Grimes recently said she “wasn’t sure” about the 1650 free as her third event and was considering doing either the 200 back or 200 fly instead, but she has opted to race the mile. Coming in seeded 9th, Grimes will notably be swimming in the early heats and won’t have the opportunity to go head-to-head with the likes of Jillian Cox during the evening session (the fastest seeded heat swims with finals).

Another noteworthy entry for Virginia is Aimee Canny in the 500 free, 200 free and 200 breast, mirroring her 2024 lineup after she raced the 100 free, 200 free and 200 IM in 2023. The 100 free would’ve been a legitimate option for Canny again this year after she set a PB of 47.96 at the Cavalier Invitational last month.