2022 TENNESSEE INVITATIONAL
- November 17-19, 2022
- Allan Jones Intercollegiate Aquatic Center, Knoxville, Tenn.
- SCY (25 yards)
- Start Times: Prelims – 10 am / Finals – 6 pm (ET)
- Psych Sheets
- Live Stream (ESPN)
- Live Results
- Dual Meet Scoring (9-4-3-2-1)
University of Virginia sophomore Gretchen Walsh swam a lifetime best in the 100 fly on Friday at the Tennessee Invite, joining the sub-50 club in the prelims (49.89) before scratching the final.
Not only does the time rank her ninth all-time in the 100 fly, she is also now just the fourth woman to have ever cracked 50 seconds in both the 100 back and 100 fly, joining Maggie MacNeil, Claire Curzan and Regan Smith.
Walsh owns a best time of 49.00 in the 100 back, done when she finished in the runner-up position at the 2022 NCAA Championships as a freshman.
After her prelims swim, Walsh overtook Smith to have the third-fastest aggregate 100 back/100 fly combo ever, with her total being 1:38.89 (or 98.89 seconds).
Walsh now sits third behind only Michigan’s Maggie MacNeil and Stanford freshman Claire Curzan. MacNeil, who transferred to LSU for her fifth year this season, is the defending Olympic champion in the 100 fly and the World Record holder in the 50 back in short course meters, and often swam the leadoff leg of Michigan’s medley relays. She is racing at the Art Adamson Invitational this weekend, while Curzan is racing at the Wolfpack Invite in North Carolina.
TOP 10 WOMEN ALL-TIME, 100 YARD FLY + 100 YARD BACK
| RANK | NAME | BACK TIME | FLY TIME | TOTAL TIME |
| 1 | MacNeil, Maggie | 49.76 | 48.89 | 98.65 |
| 2 | Curzan, Claire | 49.61 | 49.24 | 98.85 |
| 3 | Gretchen Walsh | 49.00 | 49.89 | 98.89 |
| 4 | Smith, Regan | 49.16 | 49.88 | 99.04 |
| 5 | Nelson, Beata | 49.18 | 50.65 | 99.83 |
| 6 | Coughlin, Natalie | 49.97 | 50.01 | 99.98 |
| 7 | Hansson, Louise | 50.74 | 49.26 | 100 |
| 8 | Brown, Erika | 50.88 | 49.38 | 100.26 |
| 9 | Hu, Janet | 49.93 | 50.38 | 100.31 |
| 10 | Howe, Ally | 49.69 | 51.03 | 100.72 |
Of the four women who have done it, Walsh is the only one to have gone under 21 seconds in the 50 free.
Walsh did swim the 100 back during Friday night finals at the Tennessee Invite, clocking 50.13. That set a new Pool Record, breaking Rhyan White’s record of 50.18 from February’s SEC Championship meet.
Which has yet to translate to long course success at the international level (World Championships, Summer Olympics).
Torry Huske needs to suit up for a 100 back soon
Natalie really stands out. Only one who did it 15+ years ago!
Louise Hansson is a bit of a glitch in this construct.
Her Fly is 3rd, just 0.02 back of Curzan. But her Back looks like she is a bit of an outlier for that portion, her 50.74 putting her 9th on a list of backstrokers where the top 8 are all sub 50.
Conversions are always a bit of a concern, but I have quite little “conversion” fear going from SCM to SCY. Using the Swimulator Real-Time Converter Louise gets a :49.63, improving 1.11 seconds over her mark in this chart. 49.63… Read more »
Is it just me or has there been an explosion of excellent ButterBack swimmers recently
Everyone’s learned to kick UW in these races.
Natalie a mf legend for that NCAA performance alone. Crazy to see how two decades later she’s hanging in at #6 all time in the cumulative 200 fly/back 🤯
When she went 49.97 in the back, I think the next fastest was 52.
Second place in that race was actually 53.23.
It wasn’t a set of scrubs in that field, either. Multiple Olympic gold medalists got crushed.
My favorite stat is that the year Howe broke the record, second place from Natalie’s race wouldn’t have qualified for NCAAs.
Gretchen is not even close to being second all time in the 100 fly.
With the way UVA has been going, next it will be a sub 50 100 breast