★ The Sports Examiner: Chronicling the key competitive, economic and political forces shaping elite sport and the Olympic Movement.★
★ To get the daily Sports Examiner Recap by e-mail: sign up here! ★
≡ NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS ≡
Amid all the excitement of multiple world championships and World Cup finales around the world last weekend, there was also the NCAA Division I women’s championships in Federal Way, Washington, with the main question of:
What will Gretchen Walsh do?
The last time the world looked in at Walsh was at the World Aquatics 25 m Championships in Budapest (HUN) last December, when she won seven golds and dominated the women’s division. Now a senior at Virginia, she was helping the Cavaliers try for a fifth straight NCAA title.
And she did, with ease. Virginia clubbed the field, scoring 544 points to 417 for Stanford and 394 for Texas. And Walsh was in the middle of it, with seven wins (all short-course in yards); in order:
● 200-yard Medley Relay (collegiate record)
● 50-yard Freestyle
● 200-yard Freestyle Relay
● 100-yard Butterfly (collegiate record 46.97)
● 400-yard Medley Relay
● 100-yard Freestyle (collegiate record 44.71)
● 400-yard Freestyle Relay
As a frosh, Walsh was part of five NCAA titles in 2022, then six wins in 2023 and seven in 2024. So she finished her four years at Virginia with 25 NCAA victories, with nine in individual events and 16 on relays. She also won three silvers for a career total of 28 medals.
How good was Walsh? Consider this: in the 100 Fly, she set a collegiate record in the prelims, then lowered it again in the final to 46.97, beating Stanford frosh Torri Huske (48.90). Please remember that Huske is the Paris 2024 Olympic gold medalist in the 100 m Fly. Wow.
Older sister Alex Walsh won the 100-yard Breaststroke, giving her NCAA titles in five different individual events (second only to Tracy Caulkins, who won in six events at Florida between 1982-84) and nine wins:
● 100-yard Breaststroke: 2025
● 200-yard Breaststroke: 2024
● 200-yard Butterfly: 2022
● 200-yard Medley: 2021-22-23
● 400-yard Medley: 2022-23-24
Alex finished with 29 NCAA medals and 23 golds, including 16 relay wins.
Virginia’s Claire Curzan, who won the World Aquatics Champs golds in the 50-100-200 m Backstrokes in 2024, won the 100-yard and 200-yard Backstrokes and was on four relay wins.
Huske got her first NCAA title in the 200-yard Medley, beating Alex Walsh, and was second to Gretchen Walsh in the 100 Free and 100 Fly, plus a relay silver and bronze.
Quite a meet for America’s current and future stars; their next test against the best in the rest of the world might be in July for the World Aquatics Championships in Singapore.
¶
★ Receive our exclusive, weekday TSX Recap by e-mail by clicking here.
★ Sign up a friend to receive the TSX Recap by clicking here.
★ Please consider a donation here to keep this site going.
For our updated, 895-event International Sports Calendar for 2025 and beyond, by date and by sport, click here!
