In a sea of orange and blue, the Virginia swim and dive team dove into the first meet of the season Saturday, which featured an exhibition intrasquad competition with the Naval Academy. The Aquatic & Fitness Center was filled to the brim with Cavalier fans hoping to get a glimpse of the many stars of Virginia swimming. The two schools battled it out in the first competition of the 2024-25 season, with Virginia swimmers dominating all races but one.
The non-traditional meet format saw both the No. 1 women’s and No. 14 men’s squads divided into “orange” and “blue” squads, while the Midshipmen were split into “blue” and “gold” factions. Scores were also kept by grade level. The orange Virginia team came out on top in combined team scores with 823 over its blue squad with 802 points. Meanwhile, Navy fell far behind with 543 and 488 points for their blue and gold squads, respectively.
While they fell behind in swimming events, Navy earned all of the points from the diving portion of the meet because the Virginia divers competed as exhibition competitors and therefore could not earn any points towards their respective squads.
Touching in a blistering 1:28.50 in the 200-yard medley — an intrasquad record — Virginia seniors Tim Connery and Gretchen Walsh alongside graduate students Noah Nichols and Maxine Parker won the race ahead with the “fourth year” team ahead of the “third years” and “first years.”
After her gold medal performance at the Paris Olympics, all eyes were on orange team member Gretchen Walsh. Every time she took her position on the blocks, all eyes in the room locked in on the pool. She did not disappoint, winning the 150-yard butterfly, another nontraditional race, with a time of 1:20.31 — 3.37 seconds ahead of second place — just ahead of sophomore Tess Howley on the blue squad. Gretchen Walsh also dominated the 50-yard butterfly with a time of 22.68 and 100-yard individual medley, which she finished in 52.63.
While many familiar faces took to the pool, many newcomers also wowed, with another Olympian, sophomore Claire Curzan, taking to the pool for the first time as a Cavalier since her transfer from Stanford last year. Curzan won three events for the blue team, including the 150-yard backstroke and the 150-yard freestyle. She dominated the 50-yard backstroke, finishing in 24.01, 0.75 seconds ahead of second-place Howley.
In her collegiate debut, freshman Leah Hayes won the 300-yard individual medley in 3:02.54 earning 20 points for the blue team, ahead of senior Ella Bathurst. On the men’s side, another freshman, Spencer Nicholas, also impressed — winning three events, including the 50-yard butterfly. He beat Connery and set an intrasquad record with a speedy 20.82 mark.
Another prominent highlight was junior Jack Aikins making his collegiate return after an Olympic redshirt year. He made his presence known, clinching victory in three individual races — including the 150-yard backstroke where he set an intrasquad record with a 1:14.14 time to secure victory for the blue team in the event. An All-American and Virginia record-holder in his first two years with the Cavaliers, Aikins is sure to make his presence known this season and help the men’s squad improve their respectable No. 14 finish from last year’s NCAA Championships.
Across other events, Virginia's dominance was evident. Nichols, another All-American for the men, controlled victory in the 50 and 150-yard breaststroke competitions for the orange team. After impressing in her freshman campaign, sophomore distance swimmer Cavan Gormsen was victorious in the 600-yard freestyle, touching in 5:47.35. However, she was outdueled in the 300-yard freestyle by junior Aimee Canny who swam to first in 2:46.87. Both athletes competed for the orange team.
Although this meet was held in a non-traditional format, it can only bode well for Cavalier success this season. Virginia was dominant, even though graduate student and Olympian Alex Walsh was given the day off. The immense depth of the Virginia women’s squad was especially on display, as they shut out Naval Academy swimmers from the top three of any individual event.
The Cavaliers will commence traditional racing Oct. 18 when they host Florida. The Gators were ranked No. 3 on the women’s side and No. 2 on the men’s, and they will surely provide fierce competition to the Cavaliers. The competition will be a stronger predictor of early-season strength for both squads. The meet is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. and will serve as a celebration of the fourth consecutive national championship victory by the women’s squad.
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