Making it reign: Women’s swimming gets third national championship in a row

After UVA women’s swimming captured the program’s first NCAA team title in 2021, former All-American and Olympian Paige Madden (Educ ’21) said: “There’s definitely room for improvement. We only won one of our relays, so I would imagine going into the future the goal would be to win all five relays.”

Her statement proved prescient. 

Leading from wire to wire in dominating fashion, Virginia captured its third-straight title at the NCAA Division I Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships from March 15 to 18 at the Allan Jones Aquatic Center in Knoxville, Tennessee.

UVA cemented its status as a women’s swimming dynasty, joining Texas, Stanford, Georgia and Auburn as three-time champions. The ’Hoos totaled 541.5 points with 11 total wins, including a sweep of all five relays. They are just the fourth Division I program to have won all five relays at the NCAA meet. Texas finished second with 414.5 points, and Stanford was third with 333.

“UVA has been really successful, and I knew that UVA was a place that was potentially capable of doing something like this. But never in my wildest dreams would I have thought in just three years we would win and in three more years we would have won three in a row,” head coach Todd DeSorbo said. “I do not think that the past six years could be any better. There is no way it could have gone any better for us.”

Kate Douglass (Col ’23) was the star of the show, earning Swimmer of the Meet honors. The New York native led the ’Hoos with three individual titles, winning the 200-yard individual medley (1 minute, 48.37 seconds), 100-yard butterfly (48.46) and 200-yard breaststroke (2:01.29), all in NCAA and American record times. 

Douglass has seven individual NCAA → titles in her career, having swept all three individual events in 2022 and 2023. 

“I kind of left myself a little speechless,” Douglass said. “I was very shocked with last year’s performance, and coming into this season I had no idea how I could even be better than that. To just see myself outdo my performance from last year is just really crazy.”

Before the meet, Douglass confessed her worries about living up to her 2022 success to DeSorbo.

“She was a little bit scared, and then she did it,” he said. “To see what she did last year at this meet and then have her come back and do better, I don’t know if I can put that into perspective. She’s unreal.”

Gretchen Walsh (Col ’25) finished with two NCAA titles, defending her 100 freestyle win in 45.61 and winning the 100 backstroke in an NCAA-record time of 48.26. Alex Walsh (Col ’24) defended her 400 IM title in a program-record time of 3:47.24.

Douglass, Gretchen Walsh or Alex Walsh was involved in every relay win this year. They joined forces to help UVA capture three of its five titles, swimming together in the 200 medley, 400 medley and 400 freestyle relays. 

The ’Hoos became the first repeat champions in the 200 medley relay since Cal in 2012. Gretchen Walsh, Alex Walsh, Lexi Cuomo (Engr ’23) and Douglass finished in an NCAA record time of 1:31.51. 

Before the final relay of the meet, swimmers from every team bounced up and down on the bleachers as a DJ blared music from the pool deck. Since UVA had already secured the team title, the only thing left was to see if the ’Hoos could complete the rare five-for-five relay sweep.

They finished in a flourish with Douglass, Alex Walsh, Gretchen Walsh and Maxine Parker (Col ’24) winning the 400 free relay in an American and NCAA record-breaking time of 3:05.84.

As the public address announcer called them to the podium to accept the NCAA trophy, the ’Hoos raced through the human tunnel created by other teams. 

They raised the trophy high into the air before taking the ritual celebratory plunge into the diving pool. The fully clothed coaching staff joined them in the water, followed by UVA President James E. Ryan (Law ’92) and Athletic Director Carla Williams.

UVA finished in ninth place in DeSorbo’s first season leading the program and climbed to sixth in 2019. The team missed out on a chance at its first NCAA crown in 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic canceled the NCAA championship meet. But it’s won every title since. 

Douglass and Alex Walsh have been pillars throughout the championship years. Both have represented UVA on the international stage as well. Alex Walsh captured an Olympic silver medal and Douglass a bronze in the 200 IM in Tokyo in 2021. At the 2022 FINA World Championships in Budapest, Hungary, Alex Walsh was a three-time gold medalist and Douglass a three-time bronze medalist.

Although Douglass won’t be around for any more attempts at NCAA titles, she’s confident in the program’s ability to remain at the top.

“It’s definitely going to take a while to sink in,” Douglass said just after the meet. “This is all I ever wanted coming to Virginia. I wanted to be a part of building up a program to a national championship, and now we’ve done it three times. It’s pretty crazy to think about.”