2022 NCAA DIVISION I WOMEN’S SWIMMING AND DIVING CHAMPIONSHIPS
- March 16-19, 2022
- McAuley Aquatic Center, Georgia Tech, Atlanta, Georgia (Eastern Daylight Time)
- Prelims 10AM /Finals 6PM
- Short Course Yards (25 yards)
- Live Results
- Championship Central
- SwimSwam Preview Index
During Friday’s finals session of the 2022 NCAA Division I Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships, Alex Walsh of Virginia posted a 3:57.25 to win the 400 IM. She is now the 4th fastest performer in history, and her time is the 5th fastest performance in history.
This was Walsh’s first time under 4:00. Her previous best was a 4:01.40, from the Tennessee Invite in November 2021, which was also the ACC Record. Walsh’s swim tonight was a personal best by 4.15 seconds, breaking her own ACC and Virginia records. She did not compete in the 400 IM at the 2022 ACC Championships and opted for the 200 freestyle on day three of the meet, which she won (1:42.28). Walsh did not swim this event at last year’s NCAA Championships, swimming the 200 freestyle on day three where she finished 5th (1:44.12).
Walsh was the only swimmer to go sub-4:00 in this final. Finishing 2nd in this event was Brooke Forde of Stanford (4:00.41), who won this event at the NCAA Championships last year (4:01.57). Virginia also finished 3rd and 4th in this event. In 3rd was Ella Nelson of Virginia (4:02.45), who was 2nd in this event last year (4:02.33). Taking 4th was Emma Weyant (4:03.15), who won a silver medal in the long course version of this event at the Tokyo Olympics.
Updated Top Performers Rankings:
- Ella Eastin, 3:54.60, Stanford, 2018
- Katie Ledecky, 3:56.53, Stanford, 2018
- Katinka Hosszu, 3:56.54, USC, 2012
- Alex Walsh, 3:57.25, Virginia, 2022
- Caitlin Leverenz, 3:57.89, Cal, 2012
Updated Top Performances Rankings:
- Ella Eastin, 3:54.60, Stanford, 2018
- Katie Ledecky, 3:56.53, Stanford, 2018
- Katinka Hosszu, 3:56.54, USC, 2012
- Ella Eastin, 3:57.03, Stanford, 2019
- Alex Walsh, 3:57.25, Virginia, 2022
Just wow
The best illustration of the weirdness of 400IM SCY is that the second best ever performer is Katie Ledecky. That isn’t the four styles competition. It consists of five styles and is completely asymmetric. More than 50% of this race are turns+underwater and to actual strokes goes around 12% each. So it really doesn’t mater how bad or strong a swimmer is in particular stroke. It has insignificant adjustment to the major contribution coming from underwater performance. And people call it versatility. In the 400IM LCM where the stroke performance matters Ledecky’s all time rating is #70.
Actually only 25 to 35% of this race is underwater for females at the NCAA Division 1 level AND the 400m IM at international meets for Women usually overlaps or sits near the 400m Freestyle or 1500m Freestyle events.
Ladecky raced this at NCAAs mainly because it helped her team spread out and score more points in certain years she raced at that level.
Her SCY 200 Freestyle was not as strong as her LCM 200 Freestyle too so the 400IM on Day 2 of NCAA Championships or Pac12 Championships fit into her event schedule. Ladecky never really raced the 400m IM tapered in LC competition for numbers years as well.
Maybe it was a little of exaggeration with calculation of terns + underwater part of the race. But it was an estimate. I took that the turns starts ~2 yards before wall and a swimmer swims underwater (average between strokes) ~ 70% of allowed distance, that I assumed is 15m (16.4 yards). That gave me a distance equal to a half of 25yard pool.
It’s interesting how this numbers look in the Walsh’s case.
What’s A Walsh’s major?
I’m assuming some sort of STEM? Girls Who Code @ UVA had her, Douglass, Cuomo, and Carter Bristow on a podcast- Douglass is like data science/statistics, Cuomo is chemical engineering, and Bristow is compsci, so Walsh would probably be something similar to have been invited on the podcast.
Her UVA athlete profile lists her as undeclared though but that might be outdated.