Last month at the 2024 NCAA Championship, the Virginia women’s swimming and diving team secured its fourth straight national title — that achievement only extended the dynasty the program has been building for years. While they aren’t alone in winning four consecutive championships — Texas and Stanford won five straight titles in 1988 and 1996, respectively — Virginia may soon join those ranks in 2025. Made possible by top-notch recruiting, the program remains at the top of the sport despite constant key losses in personnel.
The recent rise of Virginia and its world-class swimmers can be traced back to the 2017 hiring of Coach Todd DeSorbo. Before DeSorbo’s hiring, the Cavaliers were a modestly successful program, finishing in 12th at the 2017 NCAA Championship in their final campaign before his arrival. DeSorbo's coaching abilities were on immediate display the following season, as Virginia rose to ninth at the 2018 NCAA Championship and captured the ACC title. It would still be another three years before the Cavaliers would win their first National Championship, but DeSorbo’s impact was felt right away as he began recruiting top swimmers from around the country.
The key to the success of Virginia’s program is inextricably linked to recruitment success with superstar athletes such as Kate Douglass, senior Alex Walsh and Paige Madden. At the 2021 NCAA Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships, those three athletes all won individual golds, carrying the Cavaliers to the top spot.
While the loss of Madden hurt in 2022, the Cavaliers persevered to defend their national title thanks to contributions from then-freshmen Emma Weyant and Gretchen Walsh, winning four of five relays. This was the first of many times that Virginia showed an ability to shrug off the loss of key team members and keep pushing forward.
Virginia’s ascension to national dominance was still not over after its back-to-back success, as DeSorbo’s team claimed the 2023 NCAA Championship by 127 points over Texas, winning all five relays this time. This huge margin of victory came despite the loss of Weyant to Florida, a blow that was cushioned by the transfer arrival of then-junior Maxine Parker from Georgia. Parker swam on the Cavaliers’ 200-meter and 400-meter relay-winning teams at the NCAA Championship, also placing top-15 in three individual events.
After another key personnel loss in the 2023-24 season, this time it was a graduating Douglass, it was clear that someone would have to step up for Virginia. Douglass had three individual event wins at the 2023 NCAA Championship and had been a strong leader for the Cavaliers throughout her career. Answering the call, Gretchen Walsh stepped up big time by winning a total of seven gold medals at the 2024 NCAA Championship and smashing three American records in individual events. Thanks to Walsh’s display, Virginia was nationally victorious for a fourth consecutive season.
While Virginia’s four-peat is in part due to the program’s ability to replace its superstar swimmers, DeSorbo doesn’t just excel in the recruiting world — he possesses outstanding coaching talents too. A recent example of his guidance is graduate student Jasmine Nocentini, a Northwestern transfer that Virginia landed coming into this season. While Nocentini had never previously scored a point at an NCAA Championship, she proved crucial for the Cavaliers, winning the 100-yard breaststroke national title and four relay gold medals to help the team to victory. Virginia is clearly a program bigger than any one athlete, but they may not be much bigger than DeSorbo.
Luckily for DeSorbo and his staff, they still have one more year before they have to replace another world superstar — Alex Walsh, a 19-time individual NCAA champion during her four-year run with the Cavaliers, announced Monday on Instagram that she will return to Virginia for a fifth season. Her return is crucial for Virginia’s squad, which, with the addition of new faces, may prove stronger than ever next season.
Freshmen Cavan Gormsen and Tess Howley had very promising debut seasons, both earning First-Team All-American honors. The Cavaliers will also benefit from the arrival of Leah Hayes — the No. 2 swimmer in the 2024 recruiting class — and the return of sophomore Claire Curzan, who redshirted this year to prepare for the Paris Olympics this summer. With these additions and the return of both Walsh sisters, Virginia is shaping up to be in peak form for next season.
While Virginia is indisputably the most dominant program in recent memory, it must continue to sustain long-term success to be considered the all-time greatest dynasty in women’s swimming and diving. In NCAA history, Stanford has won eleven championships, while Georgia and Texas have won seven each. The Cavaliers rest on four as of 2024, but they appear poised to push that number upwards in the near future.
In the end, regardless of which school is heralded as the greatest of all time historically, it is glaringly obvious that Virginia is the greatest women’s swimming school of the modern era. When next season comes around, Virginia will be looking to match the Longhorns and the Cardinals in the NCAA’s history books. If DeSorbo and his staff continue to cultivate star power at the level they have in the last half decade, they may be headed down that path.
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