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UVA Swim: Gretchen Walsh Wins Third-Straight 50 Free ACC Title

Matthew Newton|
Jaylynn Nash/ACC

Virginia women's swim & dive is taking aim at a sixth-consecutive ACC Championship this week at the Greensboro Aquatic Center. Through the first two days of competition, it's been so far, so good.

After shattering an eight-year-old NCAA record in the 800 freestyle relay on Tuesday night, Virginia came back and won three more ACC titles and seized an 81.5-point lead in the overall team standings on Wednesday night in Greensboro.

UVA missed out on another record, but still blazed its way to a sixth-consecutive ACC title in the 200-yard freestyle relay. Claire Curzan swam the leadoff leg in 21.40 before giving way to Gretchen Walsh, who just barely missed the 20-second barrier by posting a 20.02 split. Alex Walsh swam a 21.23 on the third leg and then Maxine Parker closed out the swim with a 21.38, giving the Cavaliers an overall time of 1:24.03, nearly a second and a half faster than second place Louisville.

Freshman Katie Grimes, who just enrolled at UVA in January, got off to a fast start in the 500 free and managed to hold off Stanford's Aurora Roghair (4:32.88) by less than two tenths of a second, touching the wall in 4:32.69 to win the ACC title. Fellow Cavaliers Cavan Gormsen (4:35.77) and Aimee Canny (4:36.31) placed third and fourth, respectively.

After winning both the ACC and NCAA titles in the 200 IM last season, Alex Walsh scratched out of the event in the prelims, leaving freshman Leah Hayes as Virginia's torchbearer in the finals. Hayes swam the best time in the prelims (1:54.18) and bettered that mark in the final (1:54.01), but placed fourth in the final, while Stanford's Torri Huske won the title.

Finally, in what was the main event of the night, Gretchen Walsh won the "splash and dash" ACC title in the 50-yard freestyle for the third season in a row, finishing in 20.60. That wasn't close to her lifetime best of 20.37, but still ahead of the runner-up finisher Louisville's Julia Dennis by nearly half a second. UVA had two podium finishers in the event, as Claire Curzan placed third in 21.26.

After Wednesday's results, Virginia now sits in first place in the women's standings with 494.5 points, 81.5 points ahead of second-place Stanford.

2025 ACC Women's Swimming & Diving Championships Standings After Day 2

  1. Virginia — 494.5
  2. Stanford — 413
  3. Louisville — 397
  4. Cal — 308.5
  5. UNC — 260
  6. NC State — 228
  7. Pitt — 201
  8. Miami (FL) — 181
  9. Florida State — 162
  10. Duke — 138
  11. Notre Dame — 132
  12. Virginia Tech — 126
  13. Boston College — 78
  14. SMU — 76
  15. Georgia Tech — 65

As for the men, David King placed fifth in the 500 free in 4:13.43, which stands as the fourth-fastest time in UVA history in that event. Fellow freshman Spencer Nicholas took seventh in the 200 IM. That was enough to move the Virginia men from 10th up to seventh place in the latest standings with 242 points.

2025 ACC Men's Swimming & Diving Championships Standings After Day 2

  1. Cal – 457
  2. Stanford – 402
  3. North Carolina – 383
  4. NC State - 379
  5. Louisville - 282
  6. Florida State - 256.5
  7. Virginia - 242
  8. Virginia Tech - 221
  9. Georgia Tech - 215
  10. SMU - 211
  11. Pitt - 201.5
  12. Duke - 105
  13. Boston College - 62
  14. Miami (FL) – 52
  15. Notre Dame – 19

The 2025 ACC Swimming & Diving Championships will continue on Thursday with the 400 IM, 100 fly, 200 free, and women's 3-meter. Prelims begin at 9:30am and the finals will start at 5:30pm. All of the events are streamed on ACC Network Extra.

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Matt Newton
MATTHEW NEWTON

Matt launched Virginia Cavaliers On SI in August of 2021 and has since served as the site's publisher and managing editor, covering all 23 NCAA Division I sports teams at the University of Virginia. He is from Downingtown, Pennsylvania and graduated from UVA in May of 2021.

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