UVA Women Break ACC Record with 3:26.25 400 Medley Relay

2021 ACC WOMEN’S CHAMPIONSHIPS

• When: Wednesday, February 17th – Saturday, February 20th | Prelims: 11:00 am | Finals: 7:00 pm (EST) (Except Wednesday’s timed finals, which begin at 5:15 EST)
• Where: Greensboro Aquatic Center, Greensboro, NC
• Defending Champion: University of Virginia (x1) (results)
• Format: 25 Yards/Short Course Yards (SCY)
• Championship Central: Here
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With conference and meet records going down right and left tonight, it seemed somewhat inevitable that the last event of the evening, the 400 medley relay, would end with some sort of record. And while we didn’t see the U.S. Open record that a few of our commenters thought might be within striking range, fall, the UVA Cavaliers did throw down a 3:26.25, tying the 7th-fastest performance ever, to set a new ACC Record.

Freshman Alex Walsh led off with a 51.57, decently off of her lifetime best of 50.88, but still her fastest performance in over a year, while NC State’s Katharine Berkoff got the Wolfpack off to a 50.53 start. Alexis Wenger, who finished 2nd in the 100 breast tonight, outsplit NC State’s Sophie Hansson, the 100 breast champ, 57.56 to 57. 98, to close the gap.

Next, Lexi Cuomo kept things rolling on the fly leg, splitting 50.45 after setting a lifetime best of 50.65 earlier this evening, but lost ground to NC State’s Kylee Alons, who split 50.21. Heading into the anchor leg, NC State led by the better part of a second, but in jumped Kate Douglass, who could swim just about any leg of this relay on most relays in the country, to swim free. Douglass split 46.66 to Heather MacCausland‘s 48.16, giving the Cavaliers the win in 3:26.25 to 3:26.88.

The UVA quartet broke the conference record of 3:26.42, set by UVA at the 2015 NCAA Championships. That time at that point was the 2nd-fastest in history, and very nearly actually set the US Open and NCAA Records, but the Cavaliers were out touched by Stanford by just 0.01s. NC State’s time tonight was also under the former meet record of 3:27.22, which NC State set last year.

Of note, the lifetime bests for each of the four Cavalier women would suggest that the US Open Record of 3:25.09, set by Stanford in 2018, is definitely in range, as the flat-start bests for Walsh (50.88), Wenger (57.60), Cuomo (50.65), and Douglass (46.86) add up to 3:25.99, meaning they’d need to gain just under a second on the relay starts to be able to wrest the record.