I’m often asked how I got into SwimSwam. It all started with a site I coded and maintained entirely by HTML and VB called swimcoachtools.com. I was bored as a senior in college and wanted to experiment with coding, and as a former swimmer and the coach of a large summer league team, of course, I started with swimming.
The first thing I built was a medley relay calculator tool. The problem I was trying to solve is one that is common in summer league – when you have one or two dominant swimmers in an age group who can swim multiple strokes better than everyone else, and when nobody is really specializing in strokes yet, how do you assemble the best medley relays?
Little did I know that this would actually come in handy at an elite level, but here we are, 13 years later, with the Virginia Cavaliers women.
The most dominant medley relay group that has ever been assembled by a college swim program, the Cavaliers’ 200 medley relay on Thursday is a whopping 1.3 seconds faster than any other medley relay.
Not only are they good because they can assemble ‘one of each’ into a fast relay, but they have such an unbelievable glut of versatility in their relay. Kate Douglass, Alex Walsh, and Gretchen Walsh can all swim multiple legs of the medleys. Douglass and Alex Walsh can swim any of the legs of the medley relay at an NCAA-title caliber level.
So how do you figure out the fastest relays?
Using the SwimSwam Medley Relay Calculator, of course.
I entered the best flat start times for 9 of Virginia’s best swimmers and this is what the calculator figured out:
Best Medley Relay Options (with aggregate flat start times)
- Lifetime Bests Used
- Conservatively extrapolated Gretchen Walsh to 49.90 for the 100 back.
RESULTS
| BACK | BREAST | FLY | FREE | TIME |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gretchen Walsh | Alexis Wenger | Lexi Cuomo | Kate Douglass | 03:24.45 |
| Reilly Tiltmann | Alexis Wenger | Kate Douglass | Gretchen Walsh | 03:24.62 |
| Alex Walsh | Alexis Wenger | Kate Douglass | Gretchen Walsh | 03:25.01 |
| Reilly Tiltmann | Alexis Wenger | Lexi Cuomo | Kate Douglass | 03:25.04 |
| Gretchen Walsh | Alex Walsh | Lexi Cuomo | Kate Douglass | 03:25.04 |
| Gretchen Walsh | Alexis Wenger | Alex Walsh | Kate Douglass | 03:25.11 |
| Reilly Tiltmann | Alex Walsh | Kate Douglass | Gretchen Walsh | 03:25.21 |
| Alex Walsh | Alexis Wenger | Lexi Cuomo | Kate Douglass | 03:25.43 |
| Gretchen Walsh | Alexis Wenger | Kate Douglass | Lexi Cuomo | 03:25.51 |
| Gretchen Walsh | Alexis Wenger | Jessica Nava | Kate Douglass | 03:25.62 |
What’s really striking is that Alex Walsh, one of the 5 or 6 best swimmers in the NCAA, doesn’t appear on the fastest relay, just as she didn’t in the best 200 medley relay. Based on 100 times, the coaches picked the right lineup for the 4×50 relay which swam the fastest-time ever (by over a second) on Thursday evening in 1:31.81.
It’s wild to think that Alex Walsh could only swim three relays at NCAAs, but with her planning to take on a challenging 200 IM/400 IM/200 fly schedule, maybe a reduction in relay load will do her some good.
Virginia has at least three different combinations of athletes who have aggregate flat start times of 3:25.01 or better in the 400 medley relay. And that’s without relay starts.
The fastest time in the NCAA this season is a 3:26.44 by NC State. The fastest time ever was also by NC State at last year’s NCAA Championships in 3:24.59. Again, with flat start aggregates, and no relay exchanges, Virginia has an aggregate flat starttime better than the all-time best.
Virginia is so good that they could, in theory, leave Alex Walsh and Kate Douglass off the 400 medley relay and still have a very good shot at the NCAA Record. Their B relay would be one of the fastest relays in NCAA history.
It’s flabbergasting just how good this group is, if they can put it all together at NCAAs.
The most likely scenario tonight isn’t even in the list above – Gretchen, Wenger, Douglass, Alex. Perhaps putting in a 47.0 or so for Alex’s 100 free would be a good idea (since she hasn’t swam it tapered and suited maybe ever for a flat start).
When Reilly and Lexi are tapered, either (but probably not both) could be a part of the fastest option, but that will have to wait for NCAAs.
i prefer timed-finals relays at NCAAs, but UVA’s women would be a great example of helpful relay depth if they were doing trials and finals format. They could qualify top 3 in the morning and then swap out 3-4 swimmers for finals!
Want to check the math on this? By my count:
Tiltmann / Wenger / Douglass / G Walsh = 50.49 + 57.60 + 49.55 + 46.98 = 3:24.62
Tiltmann / Wenger / Cuomo / Douglass = 50.49 + 57.60 + 50.65 + 46.30 = 3:25.04
G Walsh / Wenger / Cuomo / Douglass = 50.61 + 57.60 + 50.65 + 46.30 = 3:25.16
Yeah so what happened was…from the Cal-Virginia ‘off relay’ meet, Gretchen got a boys’ time from a mixed medley in the 100 back entered as her time. They appear to have flipped the lanes’ results when they got submitted.
I’ve updated the data above estimating a 49.9 from her.
You have certainly one-upped my own personal swim geekery, knowing how to do all those fancy things with computers and the internets.
I don’t think this will be the case after today but isn’t Tillman the fastest UVA backstroker? She led off the relay last year in 50.5 while Gretchen has only gone 50.6 this season.
And then cashed out big by selling the domain to Shane Tusup and Jeremy Kipp.
I’m here for this content.
Ok, just to mess with the scenario analysis a bit more:
Jessica Nava goes the fly leg. Not implausible, perhaps a tad faster at this meet this week given her swim last night.
Off topic, but Kaylee McKeown just swam a faster 200 back in Melbourne tonight than her winning time in Tokyo. 2.04.64. LC