2026 Virginia High School League Class 6 State Meet
- February 20-21, 2026
- Rouse Swim/Sport Center, Stafford, Virginia
- Short Course Yards (25 yards)
- Results on Meet Mobile:
The next generation of American backstroke star has emerged. Alyssa Sagle of Battlefield High School in Haymarket, Virginia has broken the National Public High School Record in the 100 yard backstroke on Saturday at the Virginia High School State Championship meet.
She swam 50.56, which breaks Maggie Wanezek‘s National High School Record of 50.97 set at the 2023 Wisconsin High School state meet.
Splits Comparison
| Maggie Wanezek | Alyssa Sagle | |
| Brookfield East, Wisconsin |
Battlefield High, Virginia
|
|
| Old Record | New Record | |
| 50y | 24.68 | 24.37 |
| 100y | 26.29 | 26.19 |
| Total Time | 50.97 | 50.56 |
Sagle, 17, doesn’t age up for another three months, but her time already climbs her to 12th all-time in the 17-18 age group rankings.
Sagle trains with NCAP for club swimming and is committed to attend the University of Virginia next season. Virginia is home to the two fastest 100 yard backstrokers in history Gretchen Walsh and Claire Curzan along with the fastest 200 yard backstroker ever Curzan, who broke the NCAA Record on Saturday evening at the ACC Championships.
Curzan is both the fastest 17-18 ever (49.46 from her freshman year at Stanford) and the fastest high school performer ever (49.61 from her senior year at Cardinal Gibbons in North Carolina). That 49.61 remains the official Independent Schools Record and the overall high school record.
No mention of Eva Rottink breaking Gretchen’s Tennessee HS 100 back record?
Most of these stories don’t get noticed unless someone close to the situation (parent, coach, teammate, etc.) brings them to Swimswam’s attention.
I bet if you sent them an email, you’d see an article about it. There’s just too much swimming going on right now for them to notice everything.
The HS state meet record is 51.35 by Alex Walsh. Eva was 51.99 at the state meet. Was there another swim somewhere we didn’t see?
How does she compare to Charlotte Crush of the LADY VOLS?
Wahoo Wa!!
The rich get richer
*Hard workers with good coaching and smart training reap the benefits.
That’s how the world operates, you get what you work for.
Sagle and Camille Spink are from the same HS — and swam relays together when Spink was a Senior and Sagle was a freshman.
Yep, all the fast swimmers in Prince William County go to Battlefield.
Yeah, that’s bogus – Patriot HS won a recent state title with some great swimmers (e.g., Landon Gentry); Colgan HS has a current Senior Alex Grocholski who is 4:19 500, 3:49 IM; the list goes on
those are some crazy high school records then
And the dynasty continues ⚔️👑
UVA coaching staff is usually quite adept at recognizing potential talent in female HS recruits. She was barely a top 20 recruit at the beginning of her junior year of HS and now she’s easily one of the top 5 recruits in her class. I think swim☁️ has her in the top 10 but that also includes international recruits.
Swimcloud rankings lose value at the top end. Once you meet a 1.00, going faster in that event doesn’t improve your ranking, but going from 50.7 to 49.5 in backstroke would be immensely valuable. It serves it’s purpose fine.
Barely a top 20 recruit means she was extremely fast.
They also recruit and get the best in the country/world. Hayes, Grimes, Moesch, Mintenko, Curzan (transferred), Curtis, Walsh sisters, Douglas, and the list goes on and on.
Now, most have improved a lot too, which is due to the UVA program, but lets not act oblivious to the fact that they continue to get a lot of the top recruits each year.
CavaDore only counts top 10
I normally don’t engage with the dregs
I never wrote that she wasn’t fast. Nor did I write that UVA doesn’t get top recruits. I am also well aware of their roster.
Does UVA have any commits from the class of 2027? Keeping an associate head coach with Safe Sport violations on staff seems like questionable judgement.
UVA Backstroke will be insane next year (not that already is) with her, Curzan, and Curtis
and Wilson and Howley
Jessica Thompson has a 58.3 SCM 100 back PB, too.
And somehow one of them will inevitably pop a good 200 breast.
Seriously. That 2:02 by Aimee Canny was mind boggling. She’s 22 picking up new events like 4IM and 2 breast (I know she swam 2 breast last year — but dropping 5 more seconds is wild)
She came in from South Africa primarily known as a sprint freestyler.
The BREADTH of her skills has grown immensely.
Congrats, Aimee, on maintaining and improving on your sprint free but also developing so well in so many other events.
Admirable.