Two Colleges Share All But 3 American Records in Women’s Yards Swimming

The last few years of college swimming has seen a rebalancing of power. Whereas the West Coast was the clear best coast in women’s collegiate swimming not too long ago, improvements at schools like Virginia, NC State, Texas, Alabama, Indiana, and Tennessee have challenged that.

Consider that until 2021, the previous three NCAA Championship meets had been Cal-Stanford 1-2, in that order. Those two programs combined to occupy 14 of the previous 22 available top two spots at the NCAA Championships (with Georgia occupying 7, and Florida’s NCAA title in 2010 the other).

The two schools are located only about 31 miles apart as the crow flies, and are historic rivals in swimming and most other things. So intertwined are the two programs that until recently, Cal’s divers used Stanford’s platforms to train.

But even with the shift away from that west coast duopoly, the two schools are still swimming monoliths.

Consider that of the 19 recognized American Records in short course yards swimming, an unbelievable 16 are held by former, current, or future members of those two swim team.

• 50 free – Abbey Weitzeil (Cal)
• 100 free – Simone Manuel (Stanford)
• 200 free – Missy Franklin (Cal)
• 500 free – Katie Ledecky (Stanford)
• 1000 free – Katie Ledecky (Stanford)*
• 1650 free – Katie Ledecky (Stanford)
• 100 back – Regan Smith (Stanford)*
• 200 back – Regan Smith (Stanford)*
• 100 breast – Lilly King (Indiana)
• 200 breast – Lilly King (Indiana)
• 100 fly – Claire Curzan (Stanford)*
• 200 fly – Ella Eastin (Stanford)
• 200 IM – Ella Eastin (Stanford)
• 400 IM – Ella Eastin (Stanford)
• 200 free relay – Cal
• 400 free relay – Stanford
• 800 free relay – Stanford
• 200 medley relay – Virginia
• 400 medley relay – Stanford

* – Set prior to a swimmer beginning their NCAA careers at that school

The latest foray into those records came from high school senior Claire Curzan, who last week broke the American Record in the 100 fly that was previously held by a Tennessee swimmer, Erika Brown. That reduced the number of colleges on the above list from 5 to 4. Curzan is scheduled to start at Stanford next fall.

Consider that men’s short course American Records are held by 7 different programs: Texas, Cal, NC State, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, and Harvard.

While Virginia are the favorites to win this year’s NCAA title, and Cal especially has slipped as a team, those two programs still act as magnets for swimmers who come out of high school with Olympic-caliber resumes already. Consider that last year’s #1 and #2 ranked swimmers, Claire Curzan and her TAC Titans teammate Charlotte Hook, both decided on Stanford, across the country, rather than going to the much closer Virginia, which had a pretty good Tokyo Olympics too.

While there are other swimmers with Olympic potential in the class of 2022, Curzan and Hook are the two of the three who are already there: Curzan was on the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Team, and Hook missed the team by one spot in the 200 fly. The other in the class is Lydia Jacoby, the Olympic gold medalist in the 100 breast, who is headed to Texas.

There is young blood on the East Coast, upstart programs that have earned a deserved amount of hype for their recent success, but Cal and Stanford are generational powerhouses in women’s swimming. Even in the moments where their success ebbs a bit, it always feels like a matter of time before they retake their spots at the top.