2022 ACC SWIMMING AND DIVING CHAMPIONSHIPS
- When: Tuesday, February 15th to Saturday, February 19th Prelims 10:00am | Finals 6:00 pm (Tuesday 11:00am/4:30pm)
- Where: McAuley Aquatic Center, Atlanta Georgia (Eastern Time Zone)
- Defending Champions
- Streaming: ACC Network
- Championship Central: Here
- Detailed Timeline: Here
- Psych Sheets: Here
- Live Results
The defending NCAA Champion Virginia Cavaliers have asserted their dominance to open day 2 of the 2022 ACC Swimming & Diving Championships.
The session kicked off with a 1:24.47 from the team’s 200 free relay. That sets a new School, Meet, Conference, American, and US Open Record in the event as the fastest-ever 200 yard freestyle relay.
The relay included a 21.10 leadoff from Kate Douglass that is now the fastest time in the NCAA this season. That misses her personal best, and ACC Record, by .01 seconds.
| Virginia – 2022 ACCs | Cal – 2019 NCAAs | Virginia – 2021 NCAAs | NC State – 2019 ACCs | |
| New Record | Former American/US Open Record | Old ACC Record | Old ACC Meet Record | |
| 1st 50 | Kate Douglass – 21.10 | Maddie Murphy – 21.82 | Kate Douglass – 21.09 | Ky-Lee Perry – 21.58 |
| 2nd 50 | Alex Walsh – 21.38 | Katie McLaughlin – 21.37 | Lexi Cuomo – 21.63 | Kylee Alons – 21.19 |
| 3rd 50 | Lexi Cuomo – 21.41 | Amy Bilquist – 20.87 | Kyla Valls – 21.97 | Sirena Rowe – 21.42 |
| 4th 50 | Gretchen Walsh – 20.58 | Abbey Weitzeil – 20.49 | Alex Walsh – 21.28 | Sophie Hansson – 21.96 |
| Final Time | 1:24.47 | 1:24.55 | 1:25.97 | 1:26.15 |
The relay was anchored by freshman Gretchen Walsh in 20.58. She tied Douglass in prelims of the 50 free for the top seed with a 21.25 – the fastest-ever flat start 50 free by a freshman.
Walsh’s split on that anchor leg is the 7th-best 50 yard free split ever, and fastest by a freshman, ranking her behind only Anna Hopkin (20.27), Simone Manuel (20.45), Abbey Weitzeil (20.57), and Erika Brown (20.57).
For comparison, there were no 20-point splits in the 200 free relay at last year’s NCAA Championship by any team. Virginia was 2nd in that relay behind Cal at 1:25.97. Douglass’ personal best of 21.09 was swum on the leadoff leg of that relay.
“I had no idea that was going to happen tonight, and it did and I wasn’t surprised,” said sophomore Alex Walsh, who swam the second leg of the race. “This is what we do at Virginia.”
Walsh stepping in for the graduated Kyla Valls accounted for essentially the gap between that relay and this one. Cuomo was also .15 seconds faster than she was at NCAAs last year.
Incredible
Wahoowa! Way to go UVA. Back-to-back American records for UVA is quite legendary. I wonder if that’s ever happened by the same school in consecutive events, men and women.
What’s scary is how much faster they COULD go. Walsh had a 0.39 reaction time and has split a 21.0 before – I think they could go sub-1:24
Douglass already a tenth faster in the individual 50 later same night….