University of Louisville 5th year and All-American Abby Hay, who hasn’t raced for the Cardinals since November, is absent from this year’s ACC Swimming & Diving Championships with an injury, according to a team spokesperson. Team trainers said that Hay’s injury is “day to day”.
Hay was Louisville’s second-best scorer at last year’s ACC Championships. Her 80 individual points was one behind Gabi Albiero for the team lead.
Louisville is currently in 2nd place at the ACC Championships (through Thursday’s events). They are 163.5 points behind Virginia and 110 points clear of NC State in the team battle, so Hay’s absence is unlikely to have finished their final team rankings there.
Where her absence is more likely to be felt (if she doesn’t return, or doesn’t return at full steam) is at the NCAA Championships. She was also the team’s #2 scorer there, grabbing 30 of the team’s 140 individual points and swimming the leadoff leg of the Cardinals’ 5th-place 200 medley relay and 8th-place 400 medley relay.
Among those 30 points were a 7th-place finish in the 200 IM and 8th-place finish in the 200 fly.
In Hay’s absence, the Louisville women used Karoline Barrett on the 200 medley relay, splitting 24.55, on Tuesday. Hay was 24.47 mid-season in that same spot and 23.54 at last year’s ACC Championships.
Abby Hay‘s Best Times in Yards:
- 100 back – 51.48 (2022 NCAA Championships)
- 100 fly – 51.67 (2023 Louisville Invitational – February)
- 200 fly – 1:53.21 (2023 NCAA Championships)
- 200 IM – 1:54.03 (2023 NCAA Championships)
Hay’s injury comes in a season where Louisville was picked to finish 3rd at the NCAA Championships, but with a team that didn’t have a lot of room for misses due to relatively-limited depth (for a top three caliber team).
