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.
Counting relays, I think AW swam every event at either ACCs or NCAAs, except the 1650.
It’s crazy to think Alex may not even win an event at NCs this year because she could get bested by Huske again in the 200 IM, and a few contenders could beat her in the 100 breast (though this seems to be her best chance at a title), and I think she will get 2nd to Emma Sticklen in the 200 Fly. I hope I’m wrong though- three more titles to add to her resume would be nice!
it’s crazy to think that you’re counting her out
How fast do we think Grimes will go at NC’s? I’d say I would expect her to be somewhere around 4:31.2/15:46.5, 3:58.9…
she went 3:57.0 in Dec just after SCW, so seems PB may be in reach. Also went a 9:16 in the 1000 there,, seems like she may be a good bit faster in the mile from her time trial this winter
girl what why would she barely drop from accs she usually preforms well at big meets espevially in 4IM
She’s clearly not afraid of a challenge and I’m here for it! Should be an exciting race.
I respect her for not shying away from the tougher race and foregoing a much easier path in the 200 breast. Also looking forward to this race – it’ll be a good one. I think Emma’s the favorite at this point but anything can happen!
A. Walsh opts for an event she did not even swim at the 2024 USA Swimming Olympic Team Trials or the 2024 Short Course World Championships (as opposed to the 200 BR) nor is the top seed heading into the 2025 NCAA DI Women’s Swimming & Diving Championships.
Todd DeSorbo better hope the likes of C. Gormsen (500 FR, 1650 FR), A. Canny (500 FR, 200 BR), M. Parker (50 FR, 100 FR), A. Moesch (50 FR, 200 FR), C. Novelline (100 FL, 200 FL), E. Weber (100 BR, 200 BR) exceed expectations.
loll here comes Chicken Little Relay Names Guy with his fictional worries that the sky is falling on the most dominate woman’s team in years (well, not including their previous years of domination).
There’s literally a 3-point difference if she gets 2nd in the 2 fly vs. 1st in the 2 breast.
UVA will survive that. Trust me.
Additionally, if the current UVA qualifiers scored based on seed in the 200 breast (7, 8, 15), this will still be more than the points potentially lost by the new seeds other than Walsh in the 200 fly (9, 15) and likely reduces the points for Texas who has three swimmers based on seed set to score in the 200 fly (1, 3, 7) more than the points Texas would gain in the 200 breast based on seed (16).
Obviously, this will be scored based on the results in the pool and not on paper, but if Walsh based her decision on what is best for the team, it seems like this is the right decision based on point-differential.
I did end up scoring it out. Based on seed, UVA scores 53 points in the 200 fly and 200 breast with Alex in the 200 fly and 55 with Alex in the 200 breast. Texas scores 49 with Alex in the 200 fly and 50 with Alex in the 200 breast. Basically it’s a wash and race day will determine what actually happens both in terms of the swimmers seeded to score and both schools have swimmers seeded just below scoring in one of the events.
The wild card is the University of Texas women’s diving program which I actually have respect for.
The University of Virginia women’s swimming program can’t allow points to slip away at the 2025 NCAA DI Women’s Swimming & Diving Championships. However, if the University of Virginia women’s swimming program wins the 4 x 200 yard freestyle relay (as opposed to 4th in 2024), that changes the calculus.
In addition, the University of Virginia women’s swimming & diving program may need E. Kaye to come thru with diving points once again to pad the cushion.
Texas finished 86.5 points behind Virginia last year and lost over 150 points to graduation. Virginia lost 110 points to graduation, but basically gains all that back with the addition of Curzan and Grimes. How exactly is this meet going to be close?
You are as toxic as Andrew. Actually might be more toxic, Andrew made changes while you got worse
Andrew is also occasionally funny and his posts aren’t 5 paragraph essays with every abbreviation typed out. Relay names guy has gotten pretty mean too
this will be a good one, Alex said she wanted to be sub 1:50 after her ACCs race so clearly she wasn’t fully happy with that swim
I wonder why Alex did the 200 fly instead of 200 breast. I would have my event selection be what I intend to swim for long course meets.
Watch A. Shackell clean out E. Sticklen and A. Walsh in the W 200 FL (LCM) at the 2025 USA Swimming International Team Trials (or whatever USA Swimming calls it). Meanwhile, R. Smith obliterates the domestic field.
Sticklen didn’t have enough Bob Bowman kilometers at olympic trials, this time Sticklen beats Shackell, no more old Texas taper, this is Bob Taper now. Shackell also took out the 200 fly like a sprint at sc worlds, if she paced a little bit better, she could’ve gone 2-3 with Regan.
ok Alex isn’t swimming the 2 fly long course so chill
Because she can. She’s the most versatile female swimmer in the country. She could win or at least get top 3 in probably 8+ events.