Gretchen Walsh made her first senior international meet this summer, winning 2023 World Championship hardware:
- Gold – 4×100 medley relay
- Bronze – 50 butterfly
Coming off her breakout summer, Gretchen has big goals for the 2024 NCAA Championships. She put them out there, stating she’d like to sweep her individual events in record times.
At the 2023 NCAA Championships Gretchen was:
- 2nd – 50 free – 20.85
- 1st – 100 free – 45.61
- 1st – 100 back – 48.26 – an NCAA Record
Gretchen owns the 100 back NCAA record. She’s .06 off the 50 free (Maggie MacNeil’s 20.79), and she’s .05 off the 100 free (Simone Manuel’s 45.56).
PREDICTIONS
Gretchen will eclipse the 50 and 100 free NCAA records, and I think she’ll touch the wall in 48.1, nudging her 100 back to a new record time. This will be a career-season for Gretchen. She’s got Todd DeSorbo on deck, and she’s training with Kate Douglass and Claire Curzan. Feels like a winning atmosphere to produce an historic performance.
But who cares what I think? It’s all about what you think. Drop your comments below.
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Shame she can’t swim the 100 fly too. Maybe we see her swim some fly on medleys at ncaas? Tiltmann back and her fly? Also will probably swim it at ACCs
I got downvoted last time I said this but I think it’d be reasonable for her to swim the 100 fly instead of 100 back at NCAAs. Given that Huske, Curzan, Douglass, and MacNeil are all not in the picture, I feel like she has a clear path to the title in either event
How’s her sister doing?
Owns the 100back? Not sure about that
Did you not see her 48.2 swim?
…told Coleman my predictions before I published and he called me a whimp…said she could crack the 48 barrier in the 100 back. My brain could go there…not yet.
With Claire on one side, Kate Douglass on the other, sky’s the limit for all 3 of them from now through 2024 Olympics!
who are the clowns here that downvoted this? Identify yourselves.
I think the article meant that she owns the 100 Back NCAA record.
correct…and I made that very clear just now, updating the post.
OK. Thanks for clearing that up. And yes she owns the NCAA record…..for now
Do tell – what NCAA backstroker do you see beating GW? There’s only one current NCAA swimmer who is even in the same neighborhood. Berkoff is terrific — but GW is on another level in SCY.
Lmao 48.26 100 back is genuinely in contention for the strongest NCAA record imo
agreed…so fast.
Why do you think she can’t convert those SCY times to LCM?
Is this supposed to be a gotcha question?
It’s a genuine question.
Her PBs in 50/100 free SCY and 100 back SCY should translate to 24 low, 52, and 58 low in LCM
She was excellent in LCM as junior, beating the likes of MOC in Worlds junior and Jr Pan Pac.
So why has her SCY exploded while her LCM regressed?
Her teammates Kate Douglas and Alex Walsh are much faster in LCM now.
…I think a lot of elites make their mark in yards before their meters swims develop. I’m confident her meters times will improve with more focus/attention on the long pool. You have to consider how dominant UVA has been during her undergrad. A lot of energy is spent on yards, and it’s proven to be a great investment.
Falls flat, doesn’t it. Her job now is SCY and the NCAAs. I remember when critics on SS said Douglass wouldn’t translate. G. Walsh just comes a bit later.
Because there are 1/2 as many underwaters, and roughly 20% more swimming.
But many other swimmers can, including her own teammates Kate Douglas and Alex Walsh.
She also excelled as junior swimmer, winning golds in world juniors and pan pacs juniors.
After starting college, it seems her LCM regressed.
It’s pretty simple when it comes to her 100 back. She swims 60m underwater in a 100 yard race. In LCM, it’s only 30m underwater in a 100m race. Her conversion is going to favor SCY.
Then explain why she swam 53s in 100m free while in high school, winning Worlds Jr and Jr Pan Pac beating the likes of MOC while regressed to 54 in Fukuoka this year. She also barely beat her 100m free PB from high school.
We know she’s gotten much much faster in SCY while her LCM is stagnant.
She went PBs in all her events this year so clearly her LCM isn’t stagnant but she must have been all in on trials and couldn’t get back up for worlds and she wasn’t the only one who had this problem.
Agreed – and in SCY – the 15m mark is actually 66% of the race as opposed to just 60% in SCM
Because UVA has one pool for a combined men’s and women’s team. Can’t train LC at UVA like you can at schools with better facilities.
Then explain Kate Douglas and Alex Walsh amazing progression in LCM?
They train in the same pool, no?
Keep at it, Lisa. You’re asking a good question that is not really being answered: why hasn’t Gretchen improved as much in LC as one might expect based on the progress of other VA women in LC and her own progress in SC? She’s an outstanding swimmer, and it would be great to see her really explode in Paris.
After a long plateau she got faster in everything last summer, so 2024 will be interesting.
Those “better facilities” at Stanford dont really seem to be helping them, do they?