Top Three Times In Each NCAA Event After Midseason Invites — Women’s Edition

The top times in the NCAA this season look a lot different now that the peak of invite season has passed. Before the invite season began, we took a look at the top three swimmers in each event, and we’re returning to that exercise now that the dust has settled after invites.

Spoiler alert—every event on the women’s side got faster, whether it was the same person or school improving their mark or a new swimmer/program taking over.

Note that as we did in November, we’re only considering yards times done in an NCAA competition, so there are no converted times included and no swims from the 2024 Short Course World Championships.

Before heading to Budapest for an outstanding week at Short Course Worlds, Gretchen Walsh warmed up at the Tennessee Invitational. Her performances at the meet included a league-best three NCAA-leading swims. She’s the fastest performer this season in the 50 free (20.54), 100 backstroke (49.31), and 100 butterfly (47.35), the latter of which reset her NCAA record.

Virginia never swims the 800 freestyle relay until the ACC Championships, but she also helped the Cavaliers produce league-leading times in the 200 free relay (1:24.68), 400 free relay (3:06.93), 200 medley relay (1:32.58), and 400 medley relay (3:25.35). Claire Curzan is the other Virginia swimmer who tops the league in an individual event, contributing her NCAA record of 1:46.87 in the 200 backstroke. Curzan’s had a strong start to the season so far and also appears in the top three in the 100 backstroke and 100 butterfly.

The top programs came to play at midseason as Texas, the three-time defending NCAA runner-up, matched Virginia by producing the NCAA’s fastest time in four individual events. The Longhorns accomplished this with two swimmers, like Virginia, as Emma Sticklen and Jillian Cox extended their fast starts this season through the Texas Hall of Fame Invitational. Heading into midseason, Sticklen had the league’s fastest time in the 200 fly, and Cox the 500 free. Both improved on their times in those events while adding another—Sticklen swam a 1:49.54 in the 200 fly and picked up the 200 IM with a 1:52.75. Cox outdueled Aurora Roghair at the Hall of Fame Invite in both the 500 and 1650 free. She hit 4:30.68 in the 500 free and became the 10th fastest 1650 freestyler in history with a 15:34.66.

Speaking of Roghair and the NCAA’s top teams showing out at midseason, the Stanford women have ten entries on this table. Olympic champion Torri Huske has four of those ten, making the list in the 50 free (3rd, 21.38), 100 free (2nd, 46.62), 100 fly (2nd, 49.24), and 200 IM (3rd, 1:52.89). Lillie Nordmann (200 fly), Caroline Bricker (200 IM), and Lucy Bell (200 breast) account for the other individual swims.

Florida has seven total entries on the list, led by Bella Sims’ three events. Tennessee has seven entries as well, while Indiana has only Anna Peplowski’s 200 free, and Louisville has only the 200 free relay.

In the pre-invite article, one overwhelming theme was how much value freshmen and transfers were providing to their new programs. That’s still the case, though there has been some turnover in the top three among these swimmers. For example, Leah Shackley, Erika Pelaez, and Miranda Grana were big presences on the pre-invite table but have now fallen out of the top three in all their events. Meanwhile, Anita Bottazzo and McKenzie Siroky have asserted themselves in the 100 breaststroke, while Anna Moesch has moved near the top of the table in the 100 freestyle.

Mary-Ambre Moluh reached new heights at the Minnesota Invitational, swimming a Cal program record in the 100 backstroke (49.68) that makes her the fourth-fastest freshman in history and puts her third in the league this season behind Walsh and Curzan.

This is not to say those swimmer who fell out of the top three aren’t continuing to provide energy to their programs—they are. It’s just the league has caught up to their early season speed.

There were no events where the top time stayed the same as it was before invites. The events where the same swimmer or school improved their league-leading time were the 50 freestyle, 100 freestyle, 500 freestyle, 100 butterfly, 200 butterfly, 200 freestyle relay, and 200 medley relay.

Cox and Sticklen took over in the 1650 freestyle and 200 butterfly. Other swimmers who moved to the top of the league in an event were Stephanie Balduccini in the 200 freestyle, Walsh in the 100 backstroke, Curzan in the 200 backstroke, Bottazzo in the 100 breaststroke, Kaelyn Gridley in the 200 breaststroke, and Bricker in the 400 IM. Virginia flexed its relay dominance by taking over the 400 freestyle and 400 medley relays, while Florida moved to the top of the table in the 800 freestyle relay.