Claire Curzan Shatters ACC Meet Record in The 200 Back, Just .5 Off Of Own NCAA Record

2025 ACC Swimming and Diving Championships

• February 18-22, 2025
• Greensboro Aquatic Center — Greensboro, North Carolina
• Full Event Schedule (pre-scratch timeline)
• Championship Central
• Psych Sheets
• Live Results
• Live Streaming
• Day 1 Finals Recap
• Day 2 Prelims Recap |Day 2 Finals Recap
• Day 3 Prelims Recap | Day 3 Finals Recap
• Day 4 Prelims Recap | Day 4 Finals Recap
• Day 5 Prelims Recap  | Day 5 Finals Recap

Women’s 200 Back – Finals

• NCAA Record: 1:46.87 – Claire Curzan, 2024
• ACC Record: 1:46.87 – Claire Curzan (UVA), 2024
• ACC Meet Record: 1:49.61 – Alexia Zevnik (NCS), 2017
• 2025 NCAA ‘A’ Cut: 1:50.50
• 2024 NCAA Invite Time: 1:54.01

Top 8:

1. Claire Curzan (Virginia) – 1:47.38
2. Leah Shackely (NC State) – 1:48.73
3. Isabelle Stadden (Cal) – 1:50.30
4. Erika Pelaez (NC State) – 1:50.56
5. Carmen Weiler Sastre (Virginia Tech) – 1:51.60
6. Emma Atkinson (Virginia Tech) – 1:51.78
7. Tess Howley (Virginia) – 1:52.15
8. Kennedy Noble (NC State) – 1:52.66

To claim her first ACC title of the meet, Claire Curzan posted a 1:47.38 in the 200 back to take down Alexia Zevnik‘s ACC Meet Record, which was set back in 2017. With this swim, Curzan has now clocked the 5th fastest time ever and owns 4 of the top 10 performances of all time. Curzan was the 2023 NCAA Champion in this event her freshman year, where she won with a time of 1:47.64. During that season, Curzan competed for Stanford, but transferred to UVA that August. She went on to redshirt the 2023-2024 season in preparation for the 2024 Paris Olympics, making this her first season on UVA’s collegiate roster.

Despite focusing on butterfly throughout the majority of her career, as she qualified for the Olympic Team in 2021 for the 100 fly before earning a silver medal as a prelims swimmer on USA’s 400 medley relay, Curzan has recently shifted her focus onto backstroke. In February of 2024 at the World Aquatics Championships, she became the second ever female swimmer to sweep the backstroke events, claiming Gold in the 50, 100, and 200 back. She went on to finish in 3rd at US Trials in June, less than a tenth of a second from qualifying for a second Olympics.

Tonight, Curzan was less than a second off of her NCAA record, which she set at the Tennessee invite back in November.

Splits Comparison

While Curzan swam an extremely similar race in comparison to her personal best, she was faster—although marginally—on every single 50 in her record breaking swim. Whereas she was out 51.99 at the Tennessee Invite, she opened her 200 back tonight in a 52.15. The biggest difference was in her final 50, where she was over two tenths quicker to close out the race.

This was the first event Curzan did not set a personal best in at this meet, as she set lifetime bests in the 50 free (21.26) and 100 fly (49.02) to finish 3rd and 2nd, respectively. She also swam a personal best in the 100 back (49.35) whilst leading of UVA’s 400 medley relay, where the quartet of Curzan, Gretchen Walsh, Alex Walsh, and Anna Moesch set a new NCAA/American/US Open Record.

NC State freshman Leah Shackley also put up a strong swim, shaving over a second off of her best time to take Silver and also get under the previous meet record.