Gretchen Walsh Will Swim the 200 Back, Alex Walsh Absent from Tennessee Invite Psych Sheets

2024 Tennessee Invitational

• November 19-22, 2024
• Alan Jones Aquatic Center, Knoxville, Tennessee
• Short Course Yards (25 yards), Prelims/Finals, scored as a double dual
• Psych Sheets

The University of Tennessee has sent SwimSwam psych sheets for the 2024 Tennessee Invitational. The meet, which was pared back in number of participants during COVID, will be scored as a double dual between the three participating swim teams from Virginia, Kentucky, and the hosts Tennessee.

UNC Asheville will also participate in diving events, but won’t be scored.

The most notable data points from the psych sheets come from the defending NCAA Champion Virginia women.

Gretchen Walsh, the reigning NCAA Swimmer of the Year, coming off arguably the best season in NCAA history, will swim the 50 free, 100 fly, and 200 backstroke.

The 50 free and 100 fly are both races that she won at last year’s NCAA Championship meet, but her day 4 race was the 100 free, where she broke all of the yards records with a 44.83 in the 100 free.

But in true Virginia fashion, that doesn’t lock her in to those events, either mid-season or in championship season.

She has only swum the 200 backstroke five times in her career (club or collegiate):

• Nov 9, 2014 – 2:22.68 (Club invite) – age 11
• November 15, 2015 (Club invite) – age 12
• Oct 6, 2019 – 1:59.10 (Club invite) – age 16
• Jan 15, 2022 – 1:54.67 (Virginia Tech dual meet) – freshman
• Jan 14, 2023 – 1:51.42 (Virginia Tech dual meet) – sophomore

Her best time, done in a dual meet coming out of holiday training, would have placed her 6th at last year’s NCAA Championships.

The Virginia school record in that event is 1:49.35 belonging to Courtney Bartholomew and the ACC Record is a 1:54.03 done in 2017 by NC State’s Alexia Zecnik.

Gretchen will be the only Walsh sister racing at this invite. While Gretchen’s older sister Alex, also an Olympian and multi-time NCAA Champion, announced she would return for a 5th year, she hasn’t raced since Paris.

She underwent a procedure on her meniscus earlier this year, though Virginia coaches at the time downplayed the impact that would have on her season.

Also absent from the meet is All-American senior Tim Connery. He did race at the team’s blockbuster dual meet against Florida, though his finishes (8th in the 100 fly, 8th in the 100 breast) were not up to his usual standard. He missed the Olympic Trials and that dual with Florida was his first meet since NCAAs in March.

She is scheduled to race at Short Course Worlds in December, along with Gretchen, and fellow Virginia varsity team members Emma Weber and Jack Aikins. Both Aikins and Weber are also entered in this meet.

In keeping with tradition, Virginia won’t race either the men’s or women’s 800 free relay at the meet. During the DeSorbo era, they’ve preferred to focus on putting forward their best four for four relays mid-season and then worrying about qualifying the 800 free relays for NCAAs at the ACC Championships in February.