You are working on Staging1

Virginia Women Break NCAA Record in 200 Medley Relay to Open ACC Championships

Braden Keith
by Braden Keith 44

February 17th, 2021 ACC, College, News

2021 ACC WOMEN’S CHAMPIONSHIPS

  • When: Wednesday, February 17th – Saturday, February 20th | Prelims: 11:00 am | Finals: 7:00 pm (EST) (Except Wednesday’s timed finals, which begin at 5:15 EST)
  • Where: Greensboro Aquatic Center, Greensboro, NC
  • Defending Champion: University of Virginia (x1) (results)
  • Format: 25 Yards/Short Course Yards (SCY)
  • Championship Central: Here
  • Championship Manual
  • Live Results
  • Psych Sheets (uncut)

The University of Virginia women’s swimming & diving team reaffirmed its national championship front-runner status on Wednesday, kicking off the ACC Championship meet with the new fastest-ever time in the women’s 200 medley relay.

The group of Caroline GmelichAlexis WengerAlexa Cuomo, and Kate Douglass combined for a 1:32.93 in the relay. That breaks the old NCAA, American, and U.S. Open Records of 1:33.11 that was set in 2018 by Stanford.

Virginia 2021 Stanford 2018
New NCAA Record
Old NCAA Record
Back Caroline Gmelich – 23.70
Ally Howe – 23.54
Breast Alexis Wenger – 26.03
Kim Williams – 26.50
Fly Alexa Cuomo – 22.58
Janet Hu – 22.62
Free Kate Douglass – 20.62
Simone Manuel – 20.45
1:32.93 1:33.11

The former University of Virginia, ACC Conference, and ACC Championship Records were a 1:34.27 set at last year’s meet by nearly the same relay. Gmelich (23.98) and Wenger (26.68) led off that relay as well, but it was Douglass (22.33) on the fly leg and the now-graduated Morgan Hill (21.28) on the anchor leg.

It was Wenger’s 26.0 breaststroke leg, though, which was faster than anybody aside from Lilly King swam at the last NCAA Championship meet in 2019, that was the real difference-maker for the Cavaliers.

The emergence of Cuomo this season as one of the top sprint butterfliers in the country allowed Douglass to move to the freestyle leg, where she held on for the NCAA Record on the anchor leg on Wednesday.

There are two things that make this record-setting performance even scarier for everyone nationally not named Virginia:

  1. Gmelich, a senior, is the only swimmer from this relay graduating. Wenger is a junior, Cuomo a sophomore, and Douglass a sophomore
  2. The team didn’t have to use Alex Walsh, a member of the U.S. National Team and already the 3rd-fastest 100 breaststroker and 100 backstroker in program history to break an NCAA Record.

This puts the 400 medley relay record, which Stanford set in 2018 as well in 3:25.09, well within Virginia’s sights. Virginia has the weapons on the front-half to match Stanford’s splits (50.34/58.59) from that record-setting relay, and can probably come close to the 50.36 split as well. Whether they have a swimmer who can, or leave themselves enough room to give back time, on Simone Manuel‘s electric 45.80 anchor split from the previous record-setting time will be the deciding factor there.

RACE VIDEO

Not to be overlooked, NC State’s runner-up relay touched in a time of 1:33.52, which is the 3rd-fastest performance in history. The group of Katharine Berkoff (23.37), Sophie Hansson (26.31), Sirena Rowe (23.02), and Kylee Alons (20.82) combined for a time that would have been under the old ACC Record.

Fastest Women’s 200 Yard Medley Relays in History:

  1. Virginia, 2021 ACC Champs – 1:32.93
  2. Stanford, 2018 NCAA Champs – 1:33.11
  3. NC State, 2021 ACC Champs – 1:33.52
  4. Cal, 2018 NCAA Champs – 1:33.85
  5. Indiana, 2018 NCAA Champs – 1:33.89

In This Story

44
Leave a Reply

Subscribe
Notify of

44 Comments
newest
oldest most voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Terry Watts
3 years ago

Wahoowa!

Anonymous
3 years ago

Not going to lie, as an official, I’m really liking the no spectators, and the swimmers in the grandstands to help lower the volume on the pool deck 🙂

Huh
3 years ago

3/4 of these swimmers were not ranked in SwimSwam’s top 20 for their class.

marklewis
3 years ago

Kate Douglass can really kick. Awesome free anchor leg – 20.6.

Springbrook
3 years ago

Butterfliers for the UVA relay (Cuomo) and the Stanford relay (Hu) both former superstars in Northern Virginia.

PVSFree
Reply to  Springbrook
3 years ago

Change my mind: Virginia is an underrated swim state

All The ACC Remote Fans
3 years ago

ACC/ESPN, please stop zooming in during races!! We watch the whole pool at swim meets. Jeez.🙄

BooPack
3 years ago

NCSU looking like chump change compared to the UVa ladies

Whodoyouthinkyouare
Reply to  BooPack
3 years ago

I’m sorry, what’s the fastest you’ve ever swam a 200 medley relay? I would take top 3 in history any day. Sit down.

Huh
3 years ago

UVA’s team video is better than the ACCN’s. Sad.

About Braden Keith

Braden Keith

Braden Keith is the Editor-in-Chief and a co-founder/co-owner of SwimSwam.com. He first got his feet wet by building The Swimmers' Circle beginning in January 2010, and now comes to SwimSwam to use that experience and help build a new leader in the sport of swimming. Aside from his life on the InterWet, …

Read More »