Orange v. Blue Meet (UVA Intrasquad)
- Saturday, October 2, 2021
- Charlottesville, VA
- SCY
- Results on Meet Mobile as “Blue vs Orange Intrasquad Meet 2021”
The UVA women don’t appear to resting on their laurels after securing the program’s first-ever NCAA Championship this past spring. Just a few weeks into fall training, the Cavaliers put up some impressive times at the annual Orange-Blue intrasquad meet this morning in Charlottesville.
We’ve watched Kate Douglass throw down fast times all season long for the last two years, and this year started off no differently, as the junior smoked a 21.48 to win the women’s 50 free for the Blue Team. Freshman Gretchen Walsh touched just behind her, in 21.63. Those time would’ve finished 4th and 6th, respectively, at the 2021 NCAA Championships. Douglass won that event with a 21.13. Earlier in the meet, both women anchored their class’s mixed medley relays with sub-21 free legs; Douglass split 20.90 and Walsh 20.95.
That 50 free win came soon after Douglass won the 150 fly by over 5 seconds with a time of 1:21.98. Before that, she and Gretchen Walsh had dueled in the 150 free, with Douglass again coming out on top, 1:14.90 to 1:15.50. Douglass wrapped up the session with a 22.56 victory in the 50 fly, helping propel the Blue Team to victory.
The Blue Team also picked up wins from Gretchen’s sister Alex Walsh, who like Douglass earned a medal in the 200 IM this summer in Tokyo. Alex won the 300 IM in dominant fashion with a time of 3:00.90 and the 150 breast in 1:33.45. The Walsh sisters went head-to-head in the 100 IM, with Alex winning 53.08 to 53.54.
Elizabeth Kaye swept the women’s diving events for the Blue Team, earning scores of 274.4o on the 3m and 268.65 on the 1m.
Sean Conway, who led the Cavalier men in individual scoring at last season’s ACC Championships, was the Blue Team’s leading male scorer today. He swept the IMs, posting times of 2:44.64 in the 300 and 48.44 in the 100. He also won the 150 back with a 1:14.19 and took 4th in the 50 breast.
Noah Nichols and Jack Walker also earned two wins each the Blue Team. Nichols swept the 50 and 150 breaststrokes with times of 24.75 and 1:24.48, while Walker swept the distance freestyles with a 5:25.00 in the 600 and a 2:35.38 in the 300.
Blue also victories from Reilly Tiltmann‘s 1:23.38 effort in the 150 back, and Max Edwards‘ 21.31 in the 50 fly.
The Orange team got multiple victories from several swimmers. Emma Weyant, who earned a silver medal in Tokyo in the 400 IM before arriving at UVA as freshman this semester, swept the distance freestyles with a 5:45.49 in the 600 free and a 2:45.78 in the 300 free.
Sophomore sprint star Matt Brownstead swept the shorter freestyles. He won the 150 with a 1:08.95, over a second faster than Blue’s Matt King, who transferred in from Alabama after also sizzling in the sprint freestyles as a freshman last season. The two again went head-to-head in the 50 free, and Brownstead won that too, 19.75 to 19.89. Brownstead didn’t swim the 50 back individually, but his 21.7 leadoff from the mixed medley relay was faster than the winning time in that event.
That 50 back went to Orange’s Justin Grender, who won with a 22.01. Grender, who’s primarily a back/free type, showed off his versatility with a 1:18.03 win in the 100 fly. Walker Creedon swept the diving events for Orange, winning the 3m in 301.40 and the 1m in 273.15.
Alexis Wenger won the women’s 50 breast in 26.97. Accounting for the differences between a flat start and a relay start, that time essentially matches the 26.41 split she had at the NCAA championships on the 200 medley relay, and isn’t too far off her scorching 26.03 relay split on the relay that set the US Open medley relay relay record at ACCs.
Gretchen Walsh picked up a win in the 50 back with a 23.86, to go along with her 2nd-place finishes in the 50 free, 150 free, and 100 IM.
The meet actually began with a 200 mixed medley relay where the relays were grouped by classes, and not Blue/Orange. Here’s a full list of results from that event:
200 Mixed Medley Relay Results (By Class)
1) Third Years (Juniors) – 1:30.76
Max Edwards (22.18)
Sean Conway (24.57)
Lexi Cuomo (23.11)
Kate Douglass (20.90)
2) First Years (Freshmen) – 1:32.02
Jack Aikins (22.90)
Daniel Worth (24.61)
Reilly Tiltmann (23.56)
Gretchen Walsh (20.95)
3) Second Years (Sophomores) – 1:33.21
Matt Brownstead (21.70)
Noah Nichols (25.24)
Alex Walsh (22.77)
Emma Weyant (23.50)
4) Fourth Years (Seniors) – 1:37.30
Casey Storch (23.52)
Alexis Wenger (25.69)
Julia Menkhaus (24.76)
Carter Bristow (23.33)
curzan committed to stanford instead of UVA i’m shocked but NCAA in a couple years is gonna be incredible
Shocked? Why? Now we will see some competition!
Hot take Daniel Worth is going to be top 8 at NCs this year.
😯
23.5 relay split as a senior in high school
So they’re basically going their ncaa-meet times … on October 2. 👀👀
Why is this strange to anyone at this point. They don’t overtrain, they train to be fast all the time. When they put on suits they go really fast.
While your larger point stands, they’re still only 5 weeks into countable days. It is crazy to be this quick first weekend of October.
They don’t think (or train) with that limitation which is why they can do this. Everyone on this team trained all summer. You don’t lose fitness in three weeks.
not fitness, but feel for the water for sure. it is definitely very impressive that they are going bests in October. They’re in their 20s, not 12 year olds that pop best times at any meet
No they didn’t
Not really, considering the athletes we are talking about, plus, year over year times are getting faster! Watch times 5 years from now. They are learning and training differently then 10-15 years ago and diet, supplements.
Douglass going 21.4 is 0.5 off the Am Record. That’s the equivalent of a guy going 18.1 in an October intrasquad. If you’re not impressed by that, that’s on you.
21.4 is WILD for this early in the season, but i don’t think you can compare times like. I mean no disrespect to Weitzel, who is a phenomenal swimmer, but I don’t think its fair to compare her and Caeleb’s record. Caeleb has been shown to be the best textile sprinter in all courses while Weitzel is still quite a bit behind Ranomi’s SCM record.
She was also 21.4 last fall in November. It’s an elite swim because she’s an elite swimmer. This nonsense that you can’t be fast in the fall needs to stop though. It’s been proven that with modern training you can be fast whenever you want.
Seems suspicious. Will see what they do at the Cal meet…
kate is gonna break abbey’s record soon, i just know it.
What about Maggie?
honestly the both can go after abbey’s 50 free SCY record. but from my original comment i was more alluding to the american record for SCY since spoiler alert… we’re the only country to do SCY
I just know that, I am going to save by switching to geico! Hey now
23.86 G Walsh BK
25.69 A Wenger BR
22.77 A Walsh FL
20.90 K Douglas FR
1:33.22-that is faster than they went at NCAAs last season.
That was the NCSU won, right? Go Pack!
Did Alexis Wenger go 25 in the BR for the relay? That is crazy fast but they listed three women. I am guessing that was someone else but if Alexis is throwing 25 relay splits to start the year, that is huge for UVA along with some many other swims that were crazy fast.
Good catch. We’ll ask.
It is correct. Only one 4th year male (Casey Storch) was present on Saturday morning. Justin Grender swam his times in advance. There were 3 women on the 4th year relay. FYI: 2 men who would have been in this 4th year class graduated a year early, and are retired from swimming but working on graduate degrees at UVA. Todd’s 1st recruiting class (which he didn’t start recruiting until mid-August before their HS senior years) also had one transfer out after one semester and one stop swimming after two years.
Wenger took off early, but it’s right around 26.0 hand-timed, still crazy fast for early October.
How many dolphin kicks this time?
Were they suited up? Either way those are some quick times.
They were obviously suited up. Come on now.
So Tiltmann, who competed last year, is classified as a freshman but Weyant who just joined the team is classified as a sophmore? Can someone explain?
They’re both listed as freshmen on the official roster. Beyond that, not sure about how they ended up on their respective class relays, assuming we got the correct names.
Probably their committed classes. Weyant was committed to class or 2020 and Tiltmann 2021.
Also I believe Weyant redshirted rather than taking a gap year
yeah she most likely red shirted