2022 NCAA DIVISION I WOMEN’S SWIMMING AND DIVING CHAMPIONSHIPS
- March 16-19, 2022
- McAuley Aquatic Center, Georgia Tech, Atlanta, Georgia (Eastern Daylight Time)
- Prelims 10AM /Finals 6PM
- Short Course Yards (25 yards)
- Championship Central
- Official Psych Sheets
- Live Results
- Live Video (ESPN3): Day Two Finals
- Thursday night finals heat sheets
- Day 2 Finals Live Recap
University of Virginia junior Kate Douglass went ham in the final of the women’s 50 free.
After setting the all-time record in the event in prelims in 20.87, she swam 20.84 in finals to break the NCAA Championship, NCAA, American, US Open, and Pool Records in the event.
The old fastest-ever was a 20.90 done by Cal swimmer Abbey Weitzeil at the 2019 Minnesota Invite. Weitzeil never got to test her end-of-season taper that year after the COVID-19 pandemic canceled the NCAA Championships (which for her, might have been marred by an injury suffered at Pac-12s anyway).
Her freshman teammate Gretchen Walsh also went under 21 seconds in the final, touching in 20.95.
That Virginia 1-2 now includes two of the three fastest women in the history of the event.
All-Time Top 10, Women’s 50 SCY Freestyle:
- Kate Douglass, Virginia – 20.84 (2022 NCAA Championships)
- Abbey Weitzeil, Cal – 20.90 (2019 Minnesota Invite)
- Gretchen Walsh, Virginia – 20.95 (2022 NCAA Championships)
- Erika Brown, Tennessee – 21.03 (2020 SEC Championships)
- (TIE)Simone Manuel, Stanford – 21.17 (2017 NCAA Championships)/Maggie MacNeil, Michigan – 21.17 (2021 NCAA Championships)
- Anna Hopkin, Arkansas – 21.19 (2019 Missouri Invitational)
- Olivia Smoliva, Georgia – 21.21 (2016 NCAA Championships
- Lara Jackson, Arizona – 21.27 (2009 NCAA Championships)
- Liz Li, Ohio State – 21.28 (2018 Big Ten Championships)
Douglass is not only a stunning performer for her speed, but her versatility – later in the meet, she’ll swim the 100 fly and the 200 breaststroke. She is the top seed and the favorite in that 200 breast: an event combination that is almost unheard of at this level.
That swim by Douglass is the second-straight record for Virginia: an event earlier, her sophomore teammate Alex Walsh swam 1:50.08 in the 200 IM.
After the 50 free final, Virginia has already taken a huge 68-point lead over Texas (170-102) in the team battle as they head toward a likely second consecutive NCAA title. Both swimmers, along with Gretchen Walsh (Alex’s younger sister), will likely swim on Virginia’s 200 free relay at the end of the session.
Adrenaline personified. Truly awesome.
Congrats on the American record to Kate! 20 point those UVA girls are amazing they both break the American record for men from 1968!
Kate Thuglass
where can you tonight’s meet? ESPN3 is not showing it. Intermission?
ESPN 3 worked for me tonight
UVA’s YouTube channel posts the races pretty quickly
the NCAA channel has finals from both days uploaded already too
Like I said earlier best sprint program in the country
jeez hot take alert.
Holy smokes! Kate and the Virginia Cavaliers continue to impress!
S-S-S-S-Smokin fast! Wow-wee!!!!!!
If it was possible to compare where Douglas out-swam Weitzeil: walls+underwater part of the race, actual stroke or reaction time. We call all these elements of the race a swimming for some reason. So we can make some estimates what to expect from Douglass in Olympic size pool taking Weitzeil’s results a benchmark.
All that data should be available to the athlete and coach.
Sport would be pretty boring if there weren’t an intangible element to it. You simply can’t make calculations like that, not between swimmers and not between long course and short course.
Of course you are right. But there is some part of the sport that we call sport fan. And without it there would be no sport if nobody can appreciate athlete’s achievement. And this poor thing lives on expectations and hope.
Manual who is fifth in the list above has all time LCM ranking #10. Weitzeil is #19. And Douglass by far is only #47.
With that beautiful record breaking performance today is there a hope of strong USA presence in 50MLCM? Or it is all about extra wall and underwater?
Her 50LCM free PR is respectable. 100LCM free has room to improve. Maybe if she focuses on long course she can see a big time drop but it has been hard to focus on long course since the Olympics for collegiate athletes.
It’s all about the extra wall and underwater. We don’t have a Pernille Blume, who probably couldn’t break 21.3 SCY. We don’t have a Sjostrom who doesn’t have killer underwaters. And we don’t have a female Dressel equivalent who can hang on for a 50 LCM after he gets a quarter or more body length lead off the start. And I have no idea why. We seem to be doing all the right things — dry land, in water power training, the girls are getting taller and stronger. Our problem may be that our best prospects for a Olypmic medal contending 50 free — like Douglas — are just too frickin’ versatile to go all-in on sprint free.
I mean just look at Emma McKeon, ditches the 200 free individually once she’s in the second half of her twenties and blammo, buncha sprint golds.
(This may be a slight oversimplification but the overall point stands.)
she’s been swimming LC for a while and even has an individual Olympic medal so I think we have a pretty good idea…
it was a ridiculous swim buddy calm down