The Virginia ladies are undoubtedly one of the best group in school swimming. They’ve gained 4 straight NCAA championships and are the clear favorites to win a fifth this yr. In the event that they have been a rustic they’d have been sixteenth in gold medals, and twenty first in general medals on the 2024 Olympic Video games.
Final night time, they additional cemented their simple dominance in swimming by breaking their last NCAA relay report with their 6:44.13 swim within the 800 freestyle relay. This time was virtually two seconds quicker than the 6:45.91 mark set by Stanford again in 2017.
The NCAA report was not even probably the most spectacular feat achieved by the Virginia ladies final night time. With Gretchen Walsh’s leadoff swim of 1:39.34, the UVA ladies formally maintain each single ACC swimming report.
Coming into this season, the Cavalier ladies have been brief two convention information, the 200 backstroke and the 200 freestyle.
Claire Curzan took care of the 200 backstroke report when she set the NCAA report within the occasion on the Tennessee Invite along with her 1:46.87 on the Tennessee invite. Her time broke Kennedy Noble’s convention report of 1:48.43 from final yr’s NCAA Championships.
Main off the relay final night time, Gretchen Walsh took down Mallory Comerford’s 1:39.80 200 freestyle report from the 2018 NCAAs to develop into the 2nd quickest ladies in historical past within the occasion, simply behind Missy Franklin’s 1:39.10.
All of the ACC Convention Swimming Data:
| Occasion | Time | Workforce | Swimmer | Yr |
| 50 free | 20.37 | Virginia | Gretchen Walsh | 2024 |
| 100 free | 44.83 | Virginia | Gretchen Walsh | 2024 |
| 200 free | 1:39.34 | Virginia | Gretchen Walsh | 2025 |
| 500 free | 4:28.90 | Virginia | Leah Smith | 2017 |
| 1000 free | 9:30.15 | Virginia | Leah Smith | 2016 |
| 1650 free | 15:25.30 | Virginia | Leah Smith | 2016 |
| 100 again | 48.10 | Virginia | Gretchen Walsh | 2024 |
| 200 again | 1:46.87 | Virginia | Claire Curzan | 2024 |
| 100 breast | 56.09 | Virginia | Jasmine Nocentini | 2024 |
| 200 breast | 2:01.29 | Virginia | Kate Douglass | 2023 |
| 100 fly | 47.42 | Virginia | Gretchen Walsh | 2023 |
| 200 fly | 1:49.17 | Virginia | Alex Walsh | 2024 |
| 200 IM | 1:48.37 | Virginia | Kate Douglass | 2023 |
| 400 IM | 3:55.97 | Virginia | Alex Walsh | 2024 |
| 200 Free Relay | 1:23.63 | Virginia | Nocentini, G. Walsh, A. Walsh, Parker | 2024 |
| 400 Free Relay | 3:05.84 | Virginia | Douglass, A. Walsh, Parker, G. Walsh | 2023 |
| 800 Free Relay | 6:44.13 | Virginia | G. Walsh, A. Walsh, Canny, Curzan | 2025 |
| 200 Medley Relay | 1:31.51 | Virginia | G. Walsh, A. Walsh, Cuomo, Douglass | 2023 |
| 400 Medley Relay | 3:21.01 | Virginia | Nocentini, G. Walsh, A. Walsh, Parker | 2024 |
The Texas women and men additionally maintain all of the convention information within the Massive 12, however they don’t seem to be on a 4 yr NCAA Title Streak.
This feat prompted a tweet from the Reddit Faculty Soccer Twitter account stating: “There may be an argument to be made that UVA Ladies’s Swimming and Diving is probably the most dominant sport in D1 athletics at this second, particularly considering Olympic medals gained by present and lately graduated swimmers”
There may be an argument to be made that UVA Ladies’s Swimming and Diving is probably the most dominant sport in D1 athletics at this second, particularly considering Olympic medals gained by present and lately graduated swimmers https://t.co/L7fecno8L8
— RedditCFB (@RedditCFB) February 19, 2025
There may be not a consensus within the feedback of the submit about whether or not that is true or not, and other people have supplied some different applications. Let’s evaluate the 2 hottest strategies, OU softball and Penn State Wrestling:
Notice: This dialogue is about present dominance, not all-time outcomes
| Workforce | Penn State Wrestling (Males) | OU Softball | Virginia Swimming (Ladies) |
| Consecutive NCAA Titles | 3 | 4 | 4 |
| Consecutive Convention Titles | 2 | 0 | 5 |
| Common Season Meet/Recreation | Final Loss: 2019 | 59-7, 61-1, 59-3, 56-4 over final 4 seasons | Final Loss: 2019 |
| Latest Olympians | Paris 2024: 2/16 athletes- 12.5% | Tokyo 2021 (not contested 2024): 5/15 athletes- 33.3% | Paris 2024: 6/20 athletes- 30% |
| Olympic Medals | 1 Bronze | Silver | 11 whole (5 gold, 5 silver, 1 bronze) |
| Misc | Broke NCAA group scoring report final yr | First school softball group in historical past to four-peat | All 5 NCAA relay information. Haven’t misplaced any meet since 2019. |
Not the entire comparisons are utterly honest, notably as a result of variety of video games softball has to play compared, however what do you suppose? Are the Virginia ladies probably the most dominant group in Division 1 athletics proper now?
