Produced by Coleman Hodges
Leah Smith from Virginia didn’t hold anything back in the preliminaries of the 500 free at the UGA Invitational. Smith (4:30.85) just missed her NCAA record of 4:30.37 that she set at those championships just a year ago. We caught up with Smith following her 200 freestyle (1:43.97) and the University of Virginia’s (7:04.87) second-place finish in the 800 freestyle relay. The Virginia junior spoke to us about her races, her summer competing at World University Games and World Championships as well as the Cavaliers goals going into championship season.
Smith, as noted in our interview, also competed at Duel In The Pool over the weekend in Indianapolis. The Pittsburgh native started off night one just missing the podium in the 400-meter freestyle (3:59.24) running out of gas the final 50 meters as Team Europe’s Lotte Friis (3:59.15) overtook Smith for the bronze. Smith would bounce back on day two of the competition nearly breaking Kate Ziegler’s American record in the 800 freestyle (8:10.03) en-route to winning the event for Team USA. She immediately hopped out of the pool to warm down as minutes later she found herself back on the blocks placing 5th in the women’s 200 freestyle (1:55.33) ending her night in Indianapolis.
