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Gretchen Walsh Swims Sub 47-Second Fly, UVA Swim Wins Four More NCAA Titles

Matt Newton

Virginia Athletics

The year of Gretchen Walsh continues. Only one woman has ever swam the 200-yard butterfly in less than 48 seconds. Well, now that same woman just became the first to swim the 200-yard butterfly in less than 47 seconds.

Gretchen Walsh broke the 47-second barrier to win the 200-yard butterfly, one of four NCAA titles won by Virginia on Friday night as the Cavaliers strengthened their lead on the penultimate night of the 2025 NCAA Swimming & Diving Championships at Weyerhaeuser King Country Aquatics Center in Federal Way, Washington.

Gretchen Walsh has done some astonishing things in her time as a Cavalier but what she accomplished on Friday night in Washington is among the most impressive feats on her lengthy and legendary resume. Coming into the 200 fly already possessing the NCAA and American records in the event, Walsh proceeded to shatter her own record with a 47.21-second swim in the morning prelims. Just hours later, Walsh demolished that record again with a mind-boggling 46.97-second swim, going sub 47-seconds in her final attempted swim of that event in her career. Walsh defeated Stanford's Torri Huske (48.90), who won the gold medal in the 100-meter butterfly over Walsh at last year's Paris Olympics, by almost two full seconds.

In the 400-yard individual medley, Virginia had two freshmen swimmers advance to the A-Final and Katie Grimes (4:01.10) and Leah Hayes (4:01.62) placed fourth and fifth, respectively, while Stanford's Caroline Bricker and Lucy Bell went 1-3 and former UVA swimmer Emma Weyant took second-place for Florida. Anna Moesch, another Cavalier freshman, placed fifth in the 200-yard freestyle in 1:42.39.

Virginia went back to winning events after that, as Alex Walsh made some history in the 100-yard breaststroke. Walsh clocked a 56.49 to win her ninth-career NCAA title and her fifth unique event title, joining Tracy Caulkins as the only swimmers to win individual NCAA titles in five different events.

The most thrilling race of the night came in the 100-yard backstroke, where it appeared that Florida's Bella Sims had the narrowest of leads on Virginia's Claire Curzan down the stretch. Curzan closed strong and somehow managed to touch the wall one one-hundredth of a second before Sims. Officially, Curzan finished in 49.11 seconds, a personal best, while Sims was left as the runner-up in 49.12 seconds.

After a break for the 3-meter springboard diving event, Virginia brought out another loaded relay team featuring three Olympians and proceeded to destroy the field, winning the 400-medley relay by nearly five full seconds. The race was fairly close following the legs of Claire Curzan and Alex Walsh, but then Gretchen Walsh dove in for the butterfly leg and split 47.35 to give the Cavaliers a huge lead. Anna Moesch finished strong, touching the wall in 3:20.20, a little bit off of the NCAA record this team set at the ACC Championships last month (3:19.58), but more than enough to give Virginia yet another relay victory.

Virginia will enter the final day of competition holding a 91-point lead over second-place Stanford in the team standings.

NCAA Women's Swimming & Diving Championships Team Standings - Through Day 3

  1. Virginia – 383
  2. Stanford – 292
  3. Texas – 288
  4. Indiana – 209
  5. Tennessee – 195
  6. Florida – 177
  7. Louisville – 160.5
  8. California – 139.5
  9. Michigan – 121
  10. NC State – 114
  11. Wisconsin – 93
  12. USC – 90
  13. Miami – 75.5
  14. North Carolina – 50
  15. Arizona State – 41.5

The NCAA Championships will conclude on Saturday with the 1650 free, 200 back, 100 free, 200 breast, 200 fly, platform diving, and 400 free relay. Prelims begin at 1pm ET and the finals start at 9pm ET. All of the sessions will be streamed on ESPN+.

More Virginia Sports News

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

Virginia Women's Lacrosse Fends Off No. 14 JMU for Second Straight Ranked Victory

Virginia's Dylan Cedeno Wins ACC Wrestling Title at 141 Pounds

Eden Bigham Throws Perfect Game, UVA Softball Turns in Another 5-0 Weekend

UVA Women's Swim & Dive Wins Sixth-Straight ACC Championship

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.