Virginia Tech vs. Virginia
- Saturday, January 13th, 2024
- Christiansburg Aquatic Center, Christiansburg, VA
- Dual Meet Format
- SCY
- Results on Meet Mobile: “Virginia Tech vs Virginia”
It’s been a busy few days for Virginia’s Gretchen Walsh. She raced at the Knoxville stop of the Pro Swim Series, throwing down several fast swims, including a winning time in the 100 fly last night. From there, she made the three-hour trek to Christiansburg, VA, where the Cavaliers are taking on the Virginia Tech Hokies in an annual battle between intrastate rivals.
Despite the travel, Walsh didn’t miss a beat, as she started off today’s dual meet with a bang, splitting a 21.92 on the Cavaliers’ 200 medley relay. She apparently did that without the benefit of a tech suit, and while you might think that’d be the fastest split ever in a practice suit, Walsh was actually faster in October 2022, when she swam the then-fastest split ever, a 21.91. Just a few week’s later, Maggie MacNeil split 21.85 at the Art Adamson Invite to take over the fastest time ever.
Neither Walsh nor MacNeil swam the fly of the medley relay at last year’s NCAAs. MacNeil was swimming for LSU after transferring from Michigan, and LSU did not contest the event. Walsh, meanwhile, led off Virginia’s record-breaking squad, and her teammate, Lexi Cuomo, split 22.10, which currently ranks as the 8th-best split ever.
Top 10 All-Time Butterfly Splits, Women’s 200 Yard Medley Relay:
- Maggie MacNeil, LSU — 21.85
- Gretchen Walsh, Virginia – 21.91
- Gretchen Walsh, Virginia – 21.92
- Kate Douglass, Virginia /Alex Shackell, Carmel – 21.95
- (tie)
- Kelsi Dahlia, Louisville – 21.96
- Alyssa Marsh, Duke – 22.05
- Kelsi Dahlia, Louisville – 22.07
- Lexi Cuomo, Virginia – 22.10
- Olivia Bray, Texas – 22.17
Today, Walsh nearly matched the 21.91 split the Cavalier men got from Kamal Muhammad on their ‘A’ relay, although freshman Hayden Bellotti was almost three-tenths faster with a 21.62 on the ‘B’ relay. We’ll publish a full recap after the conclusion of today’s meet.
Dare I say Gretchen Walsh is the most exciting swimmer in the NCAA for both men and women
When Marchand can lead the NCAA from the 500 to 100 breast to 400im to 50 breast idk.
Marchand is more versatile and I think he’s a better swimmer overall especially come championship time but Walsh has the ability to throw down times close to NCAA records wearing a practice suit at duel meets
Marchand says hi!
VT men putting on an absolute clinic out here, only events they didn’t win were 50 free 2 fly and 1 breast
I was talking to DeSorbo yesterday in Knoxville and he gave me this fun fact: VT Men have not lost a conference dual meet in their home cool since 2012
Home cool!
A clinic between 2 teams ranked around #20? Anyway, why did VT take down the youtube video? I’d be interested in clinic, or really for the women’s races.
Are they wearing tech suits for all dual meets like ASU?
It says she wasn’t in a tech suit
Did Gretchen really leave Knoxville just to swim the relay at the duel meet? I only see her in the 200 medley relay?
She also swam a 59.7 100 breast
Oh wow
lol her 100s added up is now exactly 0.01 faster than Kate Douglass’ times all added up, if you count her 48.30 100 fly from a couple months ago
Does Gretchen now have the fastest 100s added up of any woman in history?
definitely, across back and fly she’s over two seconds ahead of anyone else – Maggie MacNeil I believe is in second place but 1.71 seconds slower than Gretchen. So if you added 1.70 seconds from that combined time and reduced her breaststroke, she would still have the fastest 100 back + fly combination, a 45.6 100 free, and a 58.0 100 breast. Douglass is the only one swimmer in this era who could possible hope to match that, which she probably has a decent amount of room to do in breast and back
just for the record if anyone stumbles upon this in the future: her 100s added up is very much not 0.01 faster than Douglass’, its 1.01 faster