Virginia Takes Charge With 3 Individual Wins, Cal Relays Have Ups and Downs

2021 NCAA WOMEN’S SWIMMING & DIVING CHAMPIONSHIPS

• When: Wednesday, March 17 – Saturday, March 20, 2021
• Where: Greensboro Aquatic Center / Greensboro, NC (Eastern Time Zone)
• Prelims 10 AM / Finals 6 PM (Local Time)
• Short course yards (SCY) format
• Defending champion: Stanford (3x) – 2019 results
• Streaming: ESPN3
• Championship Central
• Psych Sheets
• Live Results – Swimming
• Live Results – Diving
• Day 2 Finals Heat Sheet

TEAM SCORES

1. Virginia 184
2. NC State 124
3. Texas 119
4. California 114
5. Ohio St 101.5
6. Alabama 90
7. Georgia 85
8. Stanford 84
9. Michigan 78
10. Kentucky 65
11. Louisville 62
12. UNC 61
13. Mizzou 55
14. Florida 53.5
15. Tennessee 51
16. Indiana/Texas A&M 30
17. –
18. Northwestern 28
19. Wisconsin 23
20. USC 21
21. Minnesota/Miami 20
22. –
23. Arkansas 16
24. Arizona 15
25. Virginia Tech 11
26. Nebraska/Akron 3
27. –
28. Duke 2
29. Houston 1

Virginia has pulled into the lead after the first full day of swimming and diving, with the Cavaliers well on their way to their first NCAA title in school history. A UVA win would also be the first for the ACC, and the Cavaliers started things off today by winning all three individual swimming events.

Paige Madden and Alex Walsh were big winners, taking the 500 free and 200 IM, respectively, by over a second each. For Kate Douglass, the race was closer than expected, as she got to the wall just .04 before Michigan’s Maggie MacNeil, the Wolverine performing very well in the final to take the silver.

After day one, Virginia leads with 184 points, 60 points ahead of the next-best team.

The Golden Bears, meanwhile, experienced emotions on both ends of the spectrum.

First, their 200 free relay reminded everyone why Cal has been so good for so long. Their poise in the relay saw two swimmers massively out-perform expectations, as freshman Emily Gantriis and Elise Garcia both split 21.2s, giving way to Isabel Ivey for a 21.2 anchor leg and giving Cal the upset win over Virginia. Even after Douglass’s shocking 21.09 lead-off, the Bears swam their own race.

Historically, a Cal win here makes sense; it’s their fifth win in six years in the 200 free relay.

In the 400 medley relay, though, they had looked good for a top-three finish before being called for a DQ on their fly-to-free exchange. While it wipes them out of competing with Virginia, Cal still has a strong two days left in the meet to try to move back into second, but it’s a significant blow for the Golden Bears to cap off the night.

At the same time as Cal’s DQ, the NC State women had an emotional response to winning the 400 medley relay in another upset, the four-seed taking it with a new NCAA and U.S. Open record time and a 49.29 fly split from Kylee Alons.

Meanwhile, the most notable individual swim of the night came from Michigan’s Maggie MacNeil, who became the seventh women ever under 50 seconds in the 100 back leading off the Wolverine relay.

RELAY SPLITS

200 FREE RELAY

400 MEDLEY RELAY

BACK

BREAST

FLY

FREE