2017 WOMEN’S NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Wednesday, March 15 – Saturday, March 18
- IUPUI Natatorium – Indianapolis, IN
- Prelims 10AM/Finals 6PM (Eastern Time)
- Defending Champion: Georgia (results)
- Championship Central
- Psych Sheet
- Event Previews
- Live Stream: Wednesday/Thursday Prelims & Finals, Friday/Saturday Prelims / Friday/Saturday finals on ESPN3
- Live Results
Stanford sophomore Ella Eastin defended her NCAA title tonight with an American record 3:57.57. Her swim tonight out-performed her Stanford teammate Katie Ledecky‘s American record mark 3:57.68 from Pac-12s last month.
Eastin got her edge by outsplitting Ledecky by about a second on each of the first three legs. With that much of an edge, she was able to overcome Ledecky’s huge 52.67 final split, even with her own 56.09 freestyle split.
A split comparison is below:
| Katie Ledecky 2017 Pac-12s | Ella Eastin 2017 NCAAs |
| Fly- 55.18 | Fly- 54.44 |
| Back- 1:00.33 | Back- 59.48 |
| Breast- 1:09.50 | Breast- 1:07.56 |
| Free- 52.67 (3:57.68) | Free- 56.09 (3:57.57) |
This swim is also the second-fastest performance in history, second only to Katinka Hosszu‘s 3:56.54 from 2012 NCAAs. You can see the top five swims below:
- Katinka Hosszu (2012): 3:56.54
- Ella Eastin (2017): 3:57.57
- Katie Ledecky (2017): 3:57.68
- Caitlin Leverenz (2012): 3:58.12
- Maya DiRado (2014): 3:58.12
Eastin won the event nearly two seconds over Sydney Pickrem of A&M, who became the eighth-fastest performer in history with her 3:59.36. Texas’s Madisyn Cox was third with 4:00.97.
great job ella!!
Holy crap. Ledecky’s last 100.
Hilarious that Ledecky doesn’t even have the Stanford team record in this event. Beautiful swim by Eastin.
Congratulations to Ella Eastin! Dominating performance.
Cool, an American record.
Such an exciting performance. Congratulations Ella! Well done!