Cavaliers Now

Gretchen Walsh Leads UVA Swim to Two Titles on Thursday at NCAA Championships

Matt Newton

Virginia Athletics

Gretchen Walsh defended her title in the 50-yard freestyle and then matched her own NCAA record to lead off UVA's fourth-straight title in the 200-yard freestyle. Behind those two wins, Virginia took a 47-point lead on Stanford in the team standings on Thursday night at the 2025 NCAA Women's Swimming & Diving Championships at Weyerhaeuser King Country Aquatics Center in Federal Way, Washington.

Virginia and Stanford were tied at 74 points apiece entering the second night of the meet and it took a little while for the Cavaliers to reclaim their spot atop the team standings. The first event of the night was the 500-yard freestyle. UVA swimmers Katie Grimes and Cavan Gormsen finished fourth and fifth, while Jillian Cox of Texas took home the title with Stanford's Aurora Roghair and Indiana's Anna Peplowski filling out the podium.

The Cardinal then grabbed a 17-point lead in the standings after Torri Huske (1:49.67) defeated her U.S. Olympic teammate Alex Walsh (1:50.14) in the 200-yard individual medley, Huske's first individual NCAA title. Stanford's time atop the standings was short-lived, though, as Virginia dominated the next event.

Gretchen Walsh did not break her own record in the 50 free, but made some history by clocking the fourth-fastest time ever recorded in the event, which means she now owns each of the top 10 fastest times ever swam in the women's 50-yard freestyle. Walsh finished in 20.49 seconds to win her seventh-career individual NCAA title, while fellow Wahoo Claire Curzan took second in a personal-best 21.11 seconds and Maxine Parker placed sixth in 21.77 seconds.

In the final event of the night, Virginia secured its second relay title win as the team of Gretchen Walsh, Claire Curzan, Maxine Parker, and Anna Moesch finished in 1:24.45 to beat out second-place Stanford (1:25.04). Walsh led off and matched her NCAA record with a 20.37-second split. Curzan split 21.18, Parker went 21.56, and the freshman Moesch finished in 21.34 to close out the title win for the Cavaliers.

Also on Thursday night, Leah Hayes won the B Final of the 200 IM with a time of 1:53.71 to earn her first-career All-American honorable mention and Lizzy Kaye also earned an honorable mention after finishing 11th overall with a score of 306.85 in the 1m Diving event.

Virginia now has 225 points and leads second-place Stanford by 47 points in the team standings after two days.

NCAA Women's Swimming & Diving Championships Team Standings - Through Day 2

  1. Virginia - 225
  2. Stanford - 178
  3. Texas - 152
  4. Louisville - 106.5
  5. Indiana - 102
  6. Tennessee - 93
  7. Michigan - 92
  8. California - 89.5
  9. Florida - 71
  10. NC State - 54
  11. Wisconsin - 53
  12. Miami - 42.5
  13. Georgia - 38
  14. USC - 35
  15. North Carolina - 34

The NCAA Championships will continue on Friday with the 400 IM, 100 fly, 200 free, 100 breast, 100 back, 3m Diving, and the 400 medley relay. Prelims begin at 1pm ET and the finals start at 9pm ET. All of the sessions will be streamed on ESPN+.

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Published
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.