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Virginia Swim Shatters 200 Medley Relay Record on Opening Night of NCAAs

Matthew Newton|
Virginia Athletics

Virginia began its quest for a fifth consecutive women's swimming & diving national championship in the only way the Cavaliers seem to know: with a broken record. Claire Curzan, Alex Walsh, Gretchen Walsh, and Maxine Parker shattered UVA's own record from 2023 in the 200-yard medley relay in the first event of the 2025 NCAA Women's Swimming & Diving Championships on Wednesday night at Weyerhaeuser King Country Aquatics Center in Federal Way, Washington.

Claire Curzan, swimming in her first NCAA Championships since 2023 after taking a redshirt last season following her transfer from Stanford, swam the opening backstroke leg in 23.17 before handing off to Alex Walsh, who recorded a top-10 all-time breaststroke split of 25.62 seconds, her own personal best. Then came her younger sister Gretchen Walsh, who swam the butterfly split in 20.88 seconds, the second-fastest butterfly split ever recorded, just one one-hundredth of a second off of her own time from the dual meet with Virginia Tech a couple of months ago. Walsh now owns the five fastest 50 fly splits of all time and six of the top 10.

Finally, Maxine Parker finished strong on the anchor freestyle leg in 21.43 seconds and touched the wall in 1:31.10, dethroning the previous record of 1:31.51 set by Virginia's 2023 NCAA Championships team, which featured both Walsh sisters, Kate Douglass, and Lexi Cuomo. Second-place Stanford improved its season-best time by a full second, but still finished behind Virginia by almost two seconds.

Todd DeSorbo and the Cavaliers had some tough decisions to make regarding how they are going to utilize their best swimmers for the five relay events at this week's NCAA Championships. Each swimmer can participate in a maximum of four of the five relays. How Virginia decided to approach the two relays scheduled for the first night of the meet was very telling. The Hoos ultimately decided to stack their lineup for the first relay of the night while essentially throwing in the towel for the second relay, the 800-yard freestyle relay.

Alex Walsh, swimming again not very long after her breaststroke leg in the medley relay, was a little sluggish out of the gate and swam a 1:43.04 opening leg, over a second slower than the split she swam in this event at the ACC Championships last month. That start had the Cavaliers in fifth place after 200 yards and they were playing catch up the rest of the way. Aimee Canny swam second and split 1:42.58, nearly half a second slower than her time from the ACC Championships. A pair of freshmen helped Virginia rally for a second-place finish, though, as Anna Moesch (1:42.80) and Katie Grimes (1:42.97) turned in solid swims in their NCAA Championships debut to help UVA finish second at 6:51.29.

Stanford, meanwhile, dominated the event, finishing more than four full seconds ahead of Virginia and the rest of the field in 6:46.98 to claim the title. With Virginia and Stanford alternating going 1-2 in the two relays, the two schools ended day 1 at the 2025 NCAA Women's Swimming & Diving Championships tied atop the standings with 74 total points apiece.

NCAA Women's Swimming & Diving Championships Team Standings - Through Day 1

  1. Virginia/Stanford - 74
  2. —
  3. Florida - 60
  4. Texas - 55
  5. Michigan - 46
  6. California - 44
  7. Louisville - 42
  8. Indiana - 36
  9. Tennessee - 34
  10. Wisconsin - 30
  11. USC - 28
  12. NC State - 27
  13. ASU - 22
  14. Georgia - 12
  15. Alabama - 10

The NCAA Championships will continue on Thursday with the 500 free, 200 IM, 50 free, 200 free relay, and 1m Diving. Prelims begin at 1pm ET and the finals start at 9pm ET. All of the sessions will be streamed on ESPN+.

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Published
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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