Gretchen Walsh Breaks Own NCAA Record With 20.41 50 Freestyle In PRELIMS

2024 WOMEN’S NCAA SWIMMING AND DIVING CHAMPIONSHIPS

DAY 2 PRELIMS HEAT SHEET 

50 YARD FREESTYLE – PRELIMS

Top 8:

  1.  Gretchen Walsh (Virginia) – 20.41 *** New Everything Record***
  2.  Katharine Berkoff (NC State) – 21.23
  3.  Jasmine Nocentini (Virginia) – 21.29
  4.  Christiana Regenauer (Louisville) – 21.37
  5.  Gabi Albiero (Louisville) – 21.54
  6.  Brady Kendall (Michigan) – 21.69
  7.  Julia Dennis (Louisville)/ Maxine Parker (Virginia)/Grace Cooper (Texas) – 21.71

Gretchen Walsh has done it again breaking her own NCAA and American record in the 50 freestyle swimming a 20.41 in the final heat of the morning.

Walsh broke her own record of a 20.57 that she swam just last month at the ACC Championships. There she swam a 20.77 in prelims setting a new record before swimming a 20.57.

TOP 5 50 FREE PERFORMANCES ALL-TIME

  1. Gretchen Walsh, Virginia – 20.41 (2024)
  2. Gretchen Walsh, Virginia – 20.57 (2024)
  3. Gretchen Walsh, Virginia – 20.77 (2024)
  4. Gretchen Walsh, Virginia – 20.79 (2023)/Maggie MacNeil, LSU – 20.79 (2023)
  5. Gretchen Walsh, Virginia – 20.83 (2023)

If Walsh swims faster than a 20.79 tonight, she will hold the top five swims in the event in history (while sharing #5 with Maggie MacNeil).

Walsh was the last one off of the blocks within her reaction time of a 0.76, the slowest of all the swimmers in the 50 freestyle this morning, but flipped first at the 25 mark in a 9.99. At ACCs, she flipped in a 10.05.

Walsh will be the top seed in tonight’s A final. Last night, Walsh swam the fastest 50 backstroke ever with a 22.10.

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Mr. One Millionth Comment
8 months ago

I read the headline as GRETCHEN WALSH BREAKS DOWN NCAA RECORD and expected an in-depth video interview with Coleman. And when I didn’t find one, I was disappointed.

Alas, I scanned it too quickly as it really said: GRETCHEN WALSH BREAKS OWN NCAA RECORD. Coleman will have to wait!

fifth year, hanging on for dear life
8 months ago

Amy van Dyken somewhere probably taking full credit for this

DrewD
8 months ago

Even at 20.4 she can take her 100 out in 21.1 and post sub 44.5!

Winkelschleifer
8 months ago

Is there a Channel number on ESPN+?
I can‘t watch the stream, but I have over 400 ESPN+ Channels on tv.

LBSWIM
Reply to  Winkelschleifer
8 months ago

you have to look for “upcoming” or “live”. Scroll through until you see it. That’s how i found it. Right now you should be able to see Consolation 1 meter diving Live going on.

LBSWIM
Reply to  Winkelschleifer
8 months ago

Oh never mind. You said you can’t watch stream/live.

snailSpace
8 months ago

I predict 19.9 for finals. Nothing is impossible for her it seems like.

NCAAs will be closer this year
Reply to  snailSpace
8 months ago

Let me know your powerball picks as you are into long shots!

snailSpace
Reply to  NCAAs will be closer this year
8 months ago

Oh unhinged guesses are only fun if I don’t have a horse in the race so to speak. I admire Gretchen’s talent but I’m not particularly rooting for her, so I’m comfortable with extreme long shots xd.

Jack Merrywell
8 months ago

Screw it she’s going 17.5 lol

jeff
8 months ago

Bro what

Steve Nolan
8 months ago

My “old man yells at cloud” take today is – I hate when the live results updates all the records with the result of the race that just happened, clearing all the old ones.

I wanna know what the old records were that just got broken! I can see the new one, it’s down there in the results that I’m currently looking at!

Admin
Reply to  Steve Nolan
8 months ago

You have no idea how many days’ worth of work that this adds to our staff in aggregate over the course of a year.

jim
Reply to  Braden Keith
8 months ago

Apparently faster than you guys could type this morning as the 50 heats went by so fast to type updates…lol!

Reply to  Steve Nolan
8 months ago

Preach.

snailSpace
Reply to  Steve Nolan
8 months ago

What’s funny is that a few weeks ago I’ve seen someone praising this exact thing, and that comment had a very similar vote ratio to yours 😂

Last edited 8 months ago by snailSpace
Steve Nolan
Reply to  snailSpace
8 months ago

Someone PRAISED it?!?!?!

It’s not like it makes it easier to see when a record’s broken – they put a letter or an asterisk or w/e next to it!

The literal only issue with that is it only displays one letter, so maybe you don’t know if it counts as more than one record. But I do not want to meet the person that would prefer that over knowing what the old records were.

snailSpace
Reply to  Steve Nolan
8 months ago

Yep.

But I might have misunderstood. It was very weird to me too that someone would like that.

About Anya Pelshaw

Anya Pelshaw

Anya has been with SwimSwam since June 2021 as both a writer and social media coordinator. She was in attendance at the 2022, 2023, and 2024 Women's NCAA Championships writing and doing social media for SwimSwam. She also attended 2023 US Summer Nationals as well as the 2024 European Championships …

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