2023 ACC SWIMMING AND DIVING CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Tuesday, February 14 to Saturday, February 18, 2023
- Greensboro Aquatic Center, Greensboro, North Carolina
- Defending Champions: Virginia (women); NC State (men)
- 2022 Results
- Full Event Schedule
- Championship Central
- Psych Sheets
- Live Results
- Live Streaming
- Day 1 Live Recap
- Day 2 Prelims Heat Sheets
Anya Pelshaw contributed to this report.
University of Virginia star Alex Walsh won’t swim an individual event on day 2 of the 2023 ACC Swimming & Diving Championships. That means no entry in the 200 IM or the 500 free, though she still has 6 other choices to swim this week.
Walsh, a junior, would have been the top seed in either race. Instead, she’ll be left to choose three individual races from six events: the 400 IM (defending NCAA Champion), 200 free defending ACC Champion), 200 fly (defending NCAA Champion), 100 breast (top seed), 200 back (no time seed), and 200 breast (defending ACC Champion).
While she swam the 200 IM at last year’s ACC and NCAA Championships, winning both races, and is also the Olympic silver medalist in the event, the Virginia coaches tend to go with a “swim what feels right” approach for their stars, most of whom are wildly versatile.
There’s also limited correlation between ACC Championship entries and NCAA Championship entries. Last year, Walsh swam the 200 IM, 200 free, and 200 breast at ACCs, but the 200 IM, 400 IM, and 200 fly at NCAAs.
With the ACC Championship meet moving to a five-day format last year, this also means that she doesn’t necessarily have a double waiting for her later in the meet.
Remaining possible events, by day:
- Thursday: 400 IM, 200 free
- Friday: 200 fly, 100 breast
- Saturday: 200 back, 200 breast
Walsh’s first swim, on Tuesday, saw her swim the breaststroke leg of Virginia’s 1:31.73 in the 200 medley relay, which is the new fastest time ever. With her not swimming the 800 free relay, we can expect that she’ll swim a leg of the 200 free relay on Wednesday evening.
Her teammate Ella Nelson will also drop the 200 IM on Wednesday, where she was the #2 seed behind Walsh. She’ll race instead as the #3 seed in the 500 free, a day after anchoring Virginia’s winning 800 free relay in 1:43.30 – about two seconds better than her flat-start best.
That leaves Kate Douglass as the top seed in the 200 IM. Douglass is the defending Short Course World Champion in the event. She dropped the 50 free in spite of swimming one of the fastest 50 yard free splits (20.49) we’ve ever seen in Wednesday’s medley relay.
A full list of top 24 scratches is below:
500 free women
- #1 Alex Walsh (Virginia)
- #21 Tamryn van Selm (NC State)
500 free men
- #14 Kacper Stokowski (NC State)
200 IM women
- #1 Alex Walsh (Virginia)
- #2 Ella Nelson (Virginia)- doing 500 free
- #17 Sam Baron (Virginia)
200 IM men
- #8 Sam Hoover (NC State)
- #13 Sean Faikish (Notre Dame)
- #17 Conall Monahan (NC State)
- #20 Tyler Christianson (Notre Dame)
50 free women
- #2 Kate Douglass (Virginia)- doing 200 IM
- #13 Abby Ahrens (NC State)
- #15 Aimee Canny (Virginia)- doing 200 IM
- #19 Carmen Weiler Sastre (Virginia Tech)
50 free men
- #8 Peter Varjasi (Florida State)- doing 200 IM (#2 seed)
- #9 Luke Miller (NC State)
- #20 Giovanni Izzo (NC State)- doing 200 IM
I’m guessing 200 free, 100 breast, 200 back. She hasn’t swam a rested 200 back in a while. I bet she goes sub-1:50
hot take: uva women exchange american records. alex gets kate’s 200 br, kate gets alex’s 200 IM, Gretchen gets Kate’s 50 FR. Musical chairs so to say
This would be amazing
That’s honestly pretty feasible lol. Although I think Kate will still be in the 200 breast on day 3, so that sets up a potential battle between her and Alex.
This will be interesting. I think LC, she needs to work on her sprint endurance re the freestyle split of her 200 IM. I wonder if racing the 200 free will help with this.
True. As world champ she struggles closing similar to MA… 🤔
No one said she struggles. I am thinking about what it will take for her to win the Olympic gold medal (and I think she can). She has to deal with fierce competitors who have superior free splits in the IM— Summer Macintosh and Kate Douglass.
How in the world was Stokowski seeded with a 4:20 in the 500 free? Is that a legit time? Seems crazy for a 50 back specialist!
You meant reigning 100back NCAA champ
Yep, swum in a dual meet in October against Kentucky.
Do you think A Walsh and Douglass avoid racing each other over 200IM, or is it simply a question of maximising team points via their versatility?
My guess is that Douglass, as a senior, was given her pick, and chose the 50 for NCAA’s (and 200IM for ACC’s). She probably sees NC’s as her last hurrah in that event, as her focus will likely shift toward 200IM/200BR post-college.
Walsh will probably swim 200IM and 400IM at NCAA’s and is taking advantage of the 5-day format of ACC’s to try some other events (which remain to be seen).
has she said that she is going to train for Paris?
she said her plan was to stay at UVA to get a masters and train for paris
Odd choice. She probably could’ve won the 500 and it would’ve been great to see what time she could swim, possibly a nation-leading time. She must really not like that race since Todd says he gives them a say in what they want to swim. But now if she swims the 200 Free with Aimee Canny it will limit Canny’s chance of winning her first ACC individual title. And that would’ve been 2 potential event wins rather than a potential 1st and 2nd. 🤷🏻♂️
No Sam Hoover for NC State? Wasn’t he an NCAA qualifier last year and ACC Champion on a relay? Crazy depth for NC State
1:49 incoming from Kate