2021 NCAA WOMEN’S SWIMMING & DIVING CHAMPIONSHIPS
- When: Wednesday, March 17 – Saturday, March 20, 2021
- Where: Greensboro Aquatic Center / Greensboro, NC (Eastern Time Zone)
- Prelims 10 AM / Finals 6 PM (Local Time)
- Short course yards (SCY) format
- Defending champion: Stanford (3x) – 2019 results
- Streaming: ESPN3
- Championship Central
- Psych Sheets
- Live Results – Swimming
- Live Results – Diving
Day 4 Finals Recap
For the first time in program history, the Virginia Cavalier women are NCAA team champions, earning at least one A-finalist in every individual event. Taking team runner-up was the NC State Wolfpack, making the team rankings an ACC 1-2 finish. No ACC team, men’s or women’s, has ever finished higher than third place at NCAAs. Before this meet, Virginia’s best team finishes were a pair of 5th-place scores in 2015 and 2016. NC State’s best finish before 2021 was 7th place, achieved between 2017-2019.
🏆 We win, we swim 🏊♀️ #GoHoos pic.twitter.com/iu5PmXOFTY
— Virginia Swimming and Dive (@UVASwimDive) March 21, 2021
| ACC Team | Best Finish | Year |
| UNC | 3rd | 1982 |
| Louisville | 4th | 2019 |
| Clemson | 5th | 1987, 1988 |
| Virginia | 5th | 2015, 2016 |
| NC State | 7th | 2017-2019 |
Texas wound up placing third after NC State out-scored the Longhorns by 12 points on the 400 free relay. Previously, Texas placed 5th overall in 2017 and 2019. Finishing in fourth place were the Cal Bears, which broke their 11-year top-3 streak at NCAAs, which ran since 2009. After winning the 400 free relay, the Alabama Crimson Tide took fifth overall, which ties their best finish in 1983, the 2nd-ever women’s NCAA Championship. In sixth place were the Michigan Wolverines, previously placing 3rd in 2019 and 4th in 2018. Hitting their first top-10 finish since 1983 were the Ohio State Buckeyes, placing 7th overall. In 2019, Ohio State placed 25th. Taking 8th place were the Georgia Bulldogs, with the Stanford Cardinal placing 9th and Tennessee placing 10th.
Virginia has now become the 10th program to win an NCAA Division I title in women’s swimming & diving history, tying with Arizona and USC. Meanwhile, Virginia head coach Todd DeSorbo is now the 12th person to win an NCAA Division I title in women’s swimming & diving history.
Full 2021 Championship Team: Virginia Cavaliers
| YEAR | POINTS | EVENT | PLACE | TIME | POWER | EVENT | PLACE | TIME | POWER | EVENT | PLACE | TIME | POWER | ||
| Madden, Paige | SR | 60 | 500 Free | 1 | 4:33.61 | 836 | 200 Free | 1 | 1:42.35 | 852 | 1650 Free | 1 | 15:41.86 | 776 | |
| Douglass, Kate | SO | 54 | 50 Free | 1 | 21.13 | 989 | 100 Fly | 2 | 49.55 | 954 | 100 Free | 2 | 46.3 | 965 | |
| Walsh, Alex | FR | 48 | 200 IM | 1 | 1:51.87 | 909 | 200 Free | 5 | 1:44.12 | 771 | 200 Breast | 5 | 2:05.86 | 824 | |
| Nelson, Ella | SO | 48 | 200 IM | 5 | 1:54.74 | 801 | 400 IM | 2 | 4:02.33 | 817 | 200 Breast | 2 | 2:04.35 | 870 | |
| Wenger, Alexis | JR | 28 | 50 Free | 41 | 22.61 | 677 | 100 Breast | 3 | 57.67 | 880 | 200 Breast | 7 | 2:06.9 | 794 | |
| Tiltmann, Reilly | FR | 23 | 100 Fly | 42 | 53.38 | 661 | 100 Back | 9 | 51.33 | 784 | 200 Back | 5 | 1:50.66 | 803 | |
| Harter, Abby | FR | 18 | 200 IM | 29 | 1:58.23 | 691 | 100 Fly | 12 | 51.93 | 758 | 200 Fly | 6 | 1:53.86 | 793 | |
| Cuomo, Lexi | SO | 11 | 50 Free | 26 | 22.38 | 717 | 100 Fly | 8 | 51.8 | 767 | 100 Free | 27 | 48.92 | 705 | |
| Gmelich, Caroline | SR | 11 | 50 Free | 55 | 22.91 | 625 | 100 Back | 8 | 51.78 | 755 | |||||
| Donohoe, Maddie | SO | 8 | 500 Free | 15 | 4:44.79 | 672 | 1650 Free | 11 | 16:09.01 | 666 | |||||
| Valls, Kyla | SR | 4 | 50 Free | 51 | 22.85 | 636 | 200 Free | 13 | 1:45.63 | 710 | 100 Free | 54 | 50.03 | 615 | |
| Nava, Jessica | JR | 2 | 100 Fly | 15 | 52.15 | 742 | 200 Fly | 17 | 1:55.71 | 729 | |||||
| Bowen, Charlotte | SO | 0 | 1 mtr Diving | 47 | 229.35 | 3 mtr Diving | 33 | 263.75 | |||||||
| Menkhaus, Julia | JR | 0 | 200 IM | 55 | 2:00.51 | 623 | 200 Free | 41 | 1:47.79 | 626 | 200 Fly | 35 | 1:57.94 | 658 | |
| Bell, Jennifer | SO | 0 | 1 mtr Diving | 46 | 231.2 | 3 mtr Diving | 35 | 260.65 | |||||||
| Keating, Anna | FR | 0 | 100 Breast | 18 | 59.41 | 761 | 200 Breast | 21 | 2:08.97 | 739 | |||||
| Porter, Jocelyn | SR | 0 | 1 mtr Diving | 30 | 260.3 | 3 mtr Diving | 22 | 290.75 | Platform Diving | 33 | 222.65 |
| Team | Titles |
| Stanford | 11 |
| Texas | 7 |
| Georgia | 7 |
| Auburn | 5 |
| Cal | 4 |
| Florida | 2 |
| Arizona | 1 |
| USC | 1 |
| SMU | 1 |
| Virginia** | 1 |
| NCAA Coach | Titles |
| Richard Quick | 12 |
| Jack Bauerle | 7 |
| Teri McKeever | 4 |
| Greg Meehan | 3 |
| David Marsh | 3 |
| Mark Schubert | 3 |
| David Marsh/ Dorsey Tierney-Walker | 2 |
| Gregg Troy | 1 |
| Frank Busch | 1 |
| George Haines | 1 |
| Randy Reese | 1 |
| Todd DeSorbo** | 1 |
All 2021 NCAA Women’s Champions
- 800 Free Relay- Virginia (Kyla Valls, Paige Madden, Ella Nelson, Alex Walsh), 6:52.56
- 200 Free Relay- Cal (Eloise Riley, Emily Gantriis, Elise Garcia, Izzy Ivey), 1:25.78 *Pool Record
- 500 Free- Paige Madden (Virginia), 4:33.61
- 200 IM- Alex Walsh (Virginia), 1:51.87
- 50 Free- Kate Douglass (Virginia), 21.13
- 1-meter Diving- Sarah Bacon (Minnesota), 357.20
- 400 Medley Relay- NC State (Katharine Berkoff, Sophie Hansson, Kylee Alons, Julia Poole), 3:24.95 *U.S. Open/NCAA Record
- 400 IM- Brooke Forde (Stanford), 4:01.57 *Pool Record
- 100 Fly- Maggie MacNeil (Michigan), 48.89 *U.S. Open/NCAA Record
- 200 Free- Paige Madden (Virginia), 1:42.35
- 100 Breast- Sophie Hansson (NC State), 57.23 *Pool Record
- 100 Back- Katharine Berkoff (NC State ), 49.74 *Pool Record
- 3-meter Diving- Sarah Bacon (Minnnesota), 408.60
- 200 Medley Relay- NC State (Katharine Berkoff, Sophie Hansson, Sirena Rowe, Kylee Alons), 1:33.18
- 1650 Free- Paige Madden (Virginia), 15:41.86
- 200 Back- Phoebe Bacon (Wisconsin), 1:48.32
- 100 Free- Maggie MacNeil (Michigan), 46.02 *Pool Record
- 200 Breast- Sophie Hansson (NC State), 2:03.86 *Pool Record
- 200 Fly- Olivia Carter (Michigan), 1:51.33
- Platform Diving- Tarrin Gilliland (Indiana), 338.40
- 400 Free Relay- Alabama (Morgan Scott, Kalia Antoniou, Flora Molnar, Cora Dupre), 3:09.78
TEAM SCORES (FINAL)
- Virginia 491
- NC State 354
- Texas 344.5
- California 290
- Alabama 266
- Michigan 224.5
- Ohio State 215.5
- Georgia 181
- Stanford 159
- Tennessee 153
- Kentucky 152
- UNC 144
- Louisville 108
- Texas A&M 107.5
- Indiana 102
- Northwestern 96
- Florida 84.5
- Missouri 79
- Wisconsin 61
- Purdue 56
- Virginia Tech 55
- USC 51
- Miami 42
- Minnesota 40
- Arizona 34.5
- Nebraska 33
- Arkansas 26
- Georgia Tech 24
- Notre Dame 12
- LSU/Houston 9
- –
- San Diego State/FGCU 6
- –
- Duke 5
- Wyoming 4
- Akron 3
- Oakland/Navy 1
Congratulations to all Women’s NCAA swimmers! Excellent swimming By all ACC teams, especially UVA and NCState!
Are there teams that we know had some swimmers not tapered who are shooting for trials.
None that we know.
The fact that Texas outscored CAL by 54.5 points and had 54 points from diving AND Purdue was ahead of USC is yet another reason I wish diving would be separated from swimming. 😩
So you would rather Cal lost by 0.5 points?
Texas (and others) choose to give valuable scholarship money to support their diving program. Other programs chose to focus their valuable scholarship money on swimming. While I completely get what your saying no one is getting any kind of unfair advantage. It doesn’t matter if they spend it on swimming or diving the same amount of scholarship is given. One would even say that the programs who chose not to spend their money on diving should have an advantage at NCAA’s because divers can only score in 3 individual events while swimmers can score in 3 individual and 4 relays.
Meh. But divers only count as 1/2 a swimmer for roster purposes. So theoretically you get 6 individual scoring chances with two divers versus 3 for one swimmer.
And yet relays provide double scoring points so any swimmer with any relay potential will always get more consideration to a diver despite their individual scoring capabilities. So do you recruit a diver or a relay scorer? All that being said these divers are obviously gifted athletes and I’m glad they have the opportunity to showcase their talent and help their team to a national prominence.
And yet the swimmers who are filling out roster spots 16-18 are most likely not contributing to your relays. Let’s face it, as a coach you are not removing your top swimmers to bring divers. And I am of course speaking specifically to the max roster situation where you have to decide whether to bring two divers or one swimmer. Not disparaging divers at all. Simply pointing out what I believe was a questionable argument in the original post.
I hear you but personally, I’d rather we just get some divers.
I hear you. Even a partial scholarship to Cal for that chance at a national title, a prominent academic degree and a chance to further your diving career should be a hard opportunity to pass up!
There are three diving events at D-1 championships. Moaning about other teams having divers is the same as moaning about other teams having IMers and 200 fly swimmers.
Might want to correct the article- SMU has never won a title.
Wahoowa!
I’m impressed by DeSorbo’s flip into the pool, didn’t know he had that in him
GO PACK! WW!
Well done. Great safety protocols to help us through this final stage towards Olympic Trials. Stay safe!