2023 NCAA WOMEN’S SWIMMING AND DIVING CHAMPIONSHIPS
- March 15-18, 2023
- Allan Jones Aquatic Center–Knoxville, Tennessee
- SCY (25 yards)
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Virginia senior Kate Douglass demolished the U.S. Open, American, and NCAA records in the 200 IM with a blistering 1:48.37 on Thursday night, becoming the first woman ever under the 1:50 mark by a wide margin.
Douglass shattered the previous record of 1:50.08 set by her Cavalier teammate, junior Alex Walsh, at last year’s NCAA Championships.
Walsh ended up finishing third in this race with a 1:50.07, sneaking under her old record along with Stanford standout Torri Huske, who clocked a 1:50.06 for second place.
200 IM NCAA Records, Splits Comparison
| Kate Douglass, 2023 NCAAs | Alex Walsh, 2022 NCAAs | |
| 50 Fly | 23.51 | 23.95 |
| 50 Back | 27.40 | 27.50 |
| 50 Breast | 31.38 | 31.64 |
| 50 Free | 26.08 | 26.99 |
| Total | 1:48.37 | 1:50.08 |
“Going into this meet I really wanted to get under 1:50, so to go 1:48 is really exciting,” Douglass said after bypassing 1:49 altogether during her historic victory.
Douglass went 1:50.15 to win the ACC title last month, the second-fastest swim ever, just missing Walsh’s record by .07 seconds. This time she blew away the NCAA record by 1.71 seconds, leading wire-to-wire against the two other fastest performers of all time.
“I definitely knew I had a race like that in me,” Douglass said. “But I was just hoping for under 1:50, so to break it by that much is really exciting. I wanted to take it out fast in the fly and then just send it after that.”
In the post-race interview, Douglass revealed that she didn’t do any training for the 200 IM last fall. Then she swam the event at the Short Course World Championships in December, taking home individual gold medals in both the 200 IM and 200 breast. Her success in Melbourne inspired her to add the 200 IM to her slate this spring.
“I just got really excited about it after Short Course Worlds and focused on it after that,” Douglass said.
200 YARD INDIVIDUAL MEDLEY – FINALS
NCAA Record: 1:50.08, Alex Walsh (Virginia) — 2022Meet Record: 1:50.08, Alex Walsh (Virginia) — 2022American Record: 1:50.08, Alex Walsh (Virginia) — 2022US Open Record: 1:50.08, Alex Walsh (Virginia) — 2022Pool Record: 1:50.92, Kate Douglass (Virginia) — 2020- 2022 Champion: Alex Walsh (Virginia) — 1:50.08
Top 8:
- Kate Douglass (Virginia) – 1:48.37
- Torri Huske (Stanford) – 1:50.06
- Alex Walsh (Virginia) – 1:50.07
- Ella Nelson (Virginia) – 1:53.13
- Phoebe Bacon (Wisconsin) – 1:53.56
- Emma Sticklen (Texas) – 1:54.09
- Abby Hay (Louisville) – 1:54.62
- Sarah Foley (Duke) – 1:54.96
Virginia got a 1-3-4 finish, as Ella Nelson took fourth in 1:53.13. That’s a personal best for the senior, bettering the 1:53.69 she swam last month at the Cavalier Invite. It’s a big improvement for her in the standings as well; last year she finished eighth.
Fifth-place Phoebe Bacon and sixth-place Emma Sticklen also notched personal best times. Bacon touched in 1:53.69, which is a .83-second drop from the best time she recorded at this meet last year. Like Nelson, she also vaulted up the standings from last year, where she finished 10th overall.
This is a new event for Sticklen at the collegiate level; she raced the 50 free in 2022. She established herself as a threat for three ‘A’ finals earlier this season and lived up to that with her sixth-place finish here. She posted a 1:54.09, shaving another nine-hundredths off her lifetime best. Coming into the meet, her best was a 1:54.70, so she’s taken .61 seconds off her best over the course of the day.
Kinda reminds me of Missy’s 200 free at 2015 NCAAs – it was set up to be a marquee showdown between her and Simone, then she just obliterated the field and the record.
lol alex looks so disappointed after the race
I would say Alex was more than disappointed; she looked annoyed. Not at her performance but at Kate.
This is what I thought as well. She barely congratulated her.
I think we all thought it was possible, but even on paper a 1:48 low seemed unreasonable. The doubt lied within her ability to “keep up” in the backstroke leg (lol) and she flipped the bird to that tonight.
I speculate that she realized her breast and free are very superior and if she went out lights out to the 100 she’d be able to hold on no matter what, instead of taking it out casually and then utilizing the breast and free to make up ground. Interestingly this is what Natalie Coughlin did in the 2 IM, but her breaststroke was way below average- and she went 2:10.3 LC. I do believe KD will break the WR by… Read more »
That swim was MONSTROUS. Congrats, Kate! Massive for Torri too. And this race was so outrageous that A. Walsh PB’d, went under her AR and got third. Yes, she is NOT happy. But she knows she’s a leader so I hope she’ll channel that energy into a sub-3:56 400 IM and her biggest challenge of all– taking down the Texas gang in the 200 fly. But honestly, even more than this meet she needs to focus on the details in her LC 200 IM. Train for the American Record. Her 2:07 flat is no fluke swim but Douglass, McKeown and esp McIntosh are coming (Not prematurely handing Summer the gold like some folks here, though she is a once a… Read more »
I am thoroughly convinced that Alex Walsh needs to train for the women’s 400 meter individual medley for the 2023 World Aquatics Championships. Unfortunately for Alex Walsh, the domestic competition in the women’s 100 meter breaststroke (King, Lazor, Dobler, Jacoby) and women’s 200 meter breaststroke (King, Lazor, Douglass) is faster than Alex Walsh’s personal best times in the aforementioned events. Alex Walsh is too talented to swim one individual event at major international competitions.
Your writing style is beyond annoying but I agree with every point here.
It sounds like they used chatgpt to write it for sure.
ChatGPT should be banned
I think Alex needs to train for the men’s 400 IM
I’m curious, from a math-standpoint, where does that swim land for percent drop from previous record. Gotta be up there.
1.55%
Manuel’s 100 free was like 1.15% and MacNeil’s SCM 100 fly was 1.00%, for some fast records off the top of my head
Dressel’s 17.63 is a 1.84% drop from his 17.96 in the relay lead-off. Had he not break 18 in the relay, it would be a 3.30% (!!!) drop from his 18.23 the year prior
Sorry correction, had he not break 18 in the relay, it would be a 2.65% drop from his 18.11 prelim time
Fairly certain he was 17.81 leading off the relay?
Must be a Ledecky one in there somewhere
I wonder if those mostly just iterated on themselves, so there wasn’t just one huge drop.
Douglass would have gone below the over/under but not by a heck of a lot. With a swimmer like that you’ve got to project to the extremes. This race reminded me of Sydney McLaughlin in the world championship 400 hurdles last summer. It was just a matter of how low and startling the new number would be.
And it still could have been lower. Douglass always long glides to the wall in breaststroke. I realize that’s her style but there is more time available if she could ever sense the distance to the wall well ahead of time like Lilly King does. Lilly knows she is between strokes so she’ll throw in a quick one, enabling the final one… Read more »
You’ve always got something to say about Douglass. All season you’ve been saying she’s not fierce enough. And yet here we are
K8 = Fire; All time legendary NCAA meet in progress. Just sit back relax and try not to get burned watching.
Kate Douglass even out-split (sp?) Alex Walsh in the backstroke leg.
Didn’t you mean the Women’s backstroke leg?
Or actually the second (2nd) lap of the Women’s two hundred (200) yard Individual Medley at the 2023 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Championships, which is swum in backstroke?
That’s gonna be a lol from me, dawg.
KD had the fastest splits of the field on all 4 legs. She neutralized Huske’s fly advantage and Walsh’s back/breast advantage. This swim is the definition of IM excellence.