Cavaliers Now

Virginia Women's Swimming Sets Another American Record in the 400 Medley Relay

The UVA swimming & diving program has now broken four U.S. Open records at the ACC Championships

Matt Newton

Another night, another American record broken by the Virginia swimming & diving program. The UVA women's swim team broke its third American record at the ACC Championships on Friday. 

Virginia's team of Gretchen Walsh, Alexis Wenger, Alex Walsh, and Kate Douglass won the ACC title in the 400-yard medley relay, finishing first with a time of 3:22.34, destroying the previous American record of 3:234.58 by over two seconds. Gretchen Walsh lead with a 49.71 in the backstroke, followed by a 56.79 split in the breaststroke by Wenger. Alex Walsh swam the butterfly leg in 49.59 and Kate Douglass finished with a 46.25 in the freestyle. 

This has been an overall record-breaking week for the UVA swimming & diving program at the 2022 ACC Championships in Atlanta. Virginia women's swimming also broke the American records for the 200-yard freestyle relay on Wednesday and the 200-yard medley relay on Thursday. The UVA men's swimming team set the U.S. record in the 200-yard freestyle relay on Wednesday as well. 

The 400-yard medley relay was one of the final events of the fourth day of competition at the ACC Championships. Before the Cavaliers took down another American record to cap off the night, the Hoos put in some more work to protect their lead atop the women's standings. 

Senior Jessica Nava just barely came up short of defending her title in the 200-yard butterfly, finishing second with a time of 1:54.54, less than half a second behind NC State's Abby Arens, who won the title with a 1:54.11 mark.

Virginia went 2-3 in the women's 100-yard backstroke. After recording the fastest-ever 50-yard backstroke on Friday with a sub 23-second leg of the 200-yard medley relay, Gretchen Walsh came up just short of winning the ACC title in the 100-yard backstroke, as NC State's Katharine Berkhoff finished in 49.41 and won her third-straight ACC title in the event. Walsh took second with a time of 50.13 and UVA's Reilly Tiltmann was in third at 50.42. 

The Cavaliers recorded another second-place finish in the 100-yard breaststroke, as Alexis Wenger touched the wall just four one-hundredths of a second behind NC State's Sophie Hansson, who won her fourth consecutive ACC title in the event. Hansson finished in 56.72, while Wenger finished in 56.76. Hansson's NC State teammate Andrea Podmanikova took third with a time of 57.90. 

The Wolfpack swept all of the individual women's events on Friday and finished second in the 400-yard medley relay to cap off a day 4 that saw NC State take a big chunk out of the Cavalier lead. UVA came into Friday's competition leading NC State by over 100 points, 790.5 to 690. After Friday's races, Virginia now leads 1028.5 to 993 heading into the final day of competition on Saturday. 

Here are the current standings for the ACC Women's Swimming and Diving Championship: 

  1. Virginia – 1028.5
  2. NC State – 993
  3. Louisville – 787.5
  4. UNC – 553
  5. Duke – 534
  6. Virginia Tech – 460
  7. Notre Dame – 459
  8. Florida State – 401
  9. Miami (FL) – 336
  10. Georgia Tech – 274
  11. Pitt – 210
  12. Boston College – 135

UVA is currently fourth in the men's standings at the ACC Championships: 

  1. NC State – 1128.5
  2. Louisville – 935.5
  3. Virginia Tech – 790
  4. Virginia – 715
  5. Georgia Tech – 592.5
  6. Florida State – 504
  7. UNC – 432
  8. Pitt – 361
  9. Notre Dame – 326
  10. Duke – 275
  11. Boston College – 150.5
  12. Miami (FL) – 116

The ACC Championships will conclude on Saturday with the 100-yard freestyle, 200-yard breaststroke, 200-yard backstroke, 400-yard freestyle relay, 1650-yard freestyle, and women's platform events. 

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Matt Newton
MATT NEWTON

Matt launched Virginia Cavaliers On SI in August of 2021 and has since served as the site's publisher and managing editor, covering all 23 NCAA Division I sports teams at the University of Virginia. He is from Downingtown, Pennsylvania and graduated from UVA in May of 2021.

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