Another program has joined the 1,000-spectator club this season.
The Virginia Cavaliers and the University of Texas’ dual meet recorded 1,223 spectators at the Virginia Aquatic Fitness Center on Friday afternoon for the first day of two days of racing.
That breaks the old pool record of 856 from the last time these two teams squared off in Charlottesville in 2021, and far exceeds the pool’s official listed capacity of 800.
This meet has been building over the last three years, with two of the top programs in the country making these dual meets a regular occurrence. After 856 in 2021, there were 1,125 at the Jamail Swim Center in Austin.
With a crowd 50% over capacity in Charlottesville, that sets up for a potentially-massive showdown next year in Austin, if the meet comes back for another year, where 1,800 can be seated off deck and an additional 1,100 seated on deck in a pinch.
Virginia also raised their women’s NCAA Championship banner on Friday. That title was their 3rd consecutive NCAA title.
The first of back-to-back dual meets, the Virginia women won 113-75 and the Virginia men won 99-89 in the high-energy format that was centered around head-to-head ‘super final’ racing.
A more traditional dual meet format will be held on Saturday morning, with diving kicking off at 9AM and swimming beginning at 11AM. That meet will feature the 400 yard relays, the 200s of stroke, the 200 IM, and the 100 and 1000 free.
Other programs to break 1,000 spectators for a dual meet this season include UNC Wilmington in their victories over South Carolina, Florida in their split decision with Virginia, and Howard in its loss to Georgetown.
Were there other 1,000-spectator results this season that we missed? Let us know in the comments.
I took my age group swimmer daughter to this meet, but we didn’t have tickets and there was no line counter or anyone keeping up with who was there. People were walking in and out the entire meet because it was so hot in the pool. Does anyone know how they came up with this number? Just curious as it was a packed meet, but not sure that there were this many people there.
Paid tickets??
Question- when is dougie making her racing debut? Anyone know what meet she’ll kick off?
For UVA? Never again.
This is plainly ridiculous! These big meets if propmoted properly and are build accordingly should be topping 3/4/5k versus a measly 1k plus. Come on swimming world 🌍🌍🌍 we can do better than this? Stop living in the stone ages!
If you put 5k in a pool designed for 800, someone is definitely dying.
Um – please share where all these indoor 4000-seat pools are.
Think there’s literally one in the country with full time space for that many spectators at IUPUI.
Best part of the meet IMO is that UVA do their talking AND making a statement that one can swim real fast without tech suits!
Think about how much more exciting it would be if they just stopped being stupid old dinosaurs and wore tech suits at a meet like this sport’s fans deserve. STOP PURPOSELY SLOWING DOWN SWIMS! Or is King Todd scared his training actually doesn’t work to peak at the championship meets so hides it by refusing to wear tech suits.
Right. UVA has really struggled peaking at big meets. That’s the ticket.
How would we know? They mask the time drops behind putting on a suit that’s proven to be faster than a training suit only at the biggest meets. So that time drop could be because of the suit OR because of the training. Without wearing tech suits at these meets as well, it is nearly impossible to tell.
Ummm, I was at the meet… No one was counting… 12/23 is the birthdate of someone on staff
They were using the Michigan football sign stealer to count fans as he is currently unemployed.
There was a guy with a ticker at the second entrance set of doors by the desk where they were handing out the dynasty posters
I was at the meet and walked in and out several times. Never once saw someone with a counter. More appropriate headline: “Packed House Treated to a Fantastic Meet!”
Liked the format too. It’s okay to play with it and have some fun. Breaks things up for the swimmers and fans.
I saw the nice elderly gentleman with the clicker keeping track of spectators entering the stand area. He could not keep track of all of the people looking through the exterior windows from the outside (they could have never gotten into the stands area…).
I was also at the meet and 1223 is legit. Stands were completely crammed full with people sitting on the stairs. And then the balcony easily had 300-400 people standing, 5-6 people deep in places (not sure how a lot of them could see anything).
With their 2025 recruit haul they will need to add seating.
No support for swimming or athletics in the current administration. If ACC collapses swimming will be axed.
Yeah, I’m sure that’s your beef with Virginia ;-).
It is sad when the headlines is 1200 spectators on a football game weekend! Did they pay? The reason olympic sports are all beholden to football! They did get to see some fast swimming!