Tennessee Freshman Pulls Dirty Double, Wins 400 IM/100 Fly Back-to-Back at SECs

2022 SEC SWIMMING & DIVING CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Tuesday, February 15 – Saturday, February 19, 2022
• Jones Aquatics Center, Knoxville, Tenn. (Eastern Time Zone)
• Defending Champion: Men- Florida (9x) Women- Kentucky (1x)
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• Live Video (Watch ESPN)
• Championship Central
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• Thursday morning heat sheets
• 2021 SEC Scoring Breakdown
• Day 3 Finals Live Recap

University of Tennessee freshman Ellen Walshe pulled off one of the filthiest doubles we’ve ever seen on Thursday at the 2022 SEC Swimming & Diving Championships.

First, she won the 400 IM in 4:01.53, which breaks the Tennessee School Record that was previously set in 2020 by Tess Cieplucha in 2020. Roughly 30 minutes later, she swam, and won, the 100 fly in 50.34, beating out a fellow Olympian Rhyan White of Alabama.

It’s pretty rare for any swimmer to take on two individual events in a championship session that includes the 400 IM, rarer to see them in back-to-back races, and even rarer still to win them all in a conference at the level of the SEC, but Walshe, a 20-year old freshman from Ireland, showed no fear in conquering it.

Walshe’s time in the 400 IM was a best time by four-and-a-half seconds, clearing the 4:06.0 she swam at the Tennessee Invite in November, but her focus meet for the fall semester was Short Course Worlds. She took a silver medal in the 400 IM at that meet behind only Cieplucha, now a pro swimmer, and the same swimmer whose record she broke on Thursday in Knoxville.

Her best time in the 100 fly is from the Tennessee Invite at 50.24.

While Walshe is a bit older than the traditional college freshman, her time in the 400 IM makes her the 6th-fastest NCAA freshman ever:

1. Katie Ledecky, Stanford, 2017 – 3:57.68
2. Ella Eastin, Stanford, 2016 – 3:58.40
3. Brooke Forde, Stanford, 2018 – 3:59.34
4. Elizabeth Beisel, Florida, 2011 – 4:00.83
5. Maya DiRado, Stanford, 2011 – 4:01.02
6. Katinka Hosszu, USC, 2009 – 4:01.49
7. Ellen Walshe, Tennessee, 2022 – 4:01.53
8. Kathleen Hersey, Texas, 2009 – 4:01.91
9. Allie Szekely, Stanford, 2017 – 4:02.34
10. Sarah Darcel, Cal, 2018 – 4:03.00

The swim is the second-best yards swim in the NCAA this year behind only Virginia’s Alex Walsh, who was 4:01.40 mid-season. Walshe’s mid-season time from short course Worlds in the 400 meter IM of 4:26.52 still converts to a slightly-better seed time for NCAAs though – 4:01.46 by the NCAA’s official conversions.

While the SEC has stretched the schedule out to 5 days at the conference meet, these two events are also back-to-back at the NCAA Championships, which is only a 4 day meet. Her 400 IM time from Thursday would have won last year’s NCAA title in the event, while her 100 fly time would have placed her 3rd in the final. 36 points in an hour is not a bad point total for one session.

With the 200 medley relay (where Walshe swam the fly leg this week) moving to day 1 of the NCAA meet, at least she can avoid the triple in March.