Virginia swimming traveled to Knoxville, Tenn., this week for the Tennessee Invitational, a four-day, double-dual meet hosted by Tennessee. The event, which began Tuesday and culminated Friday, featured the Volunteers, Kentucky and the Cavaliers.
The women’s team picked up wins over both of its competitors, defeating the Wildcats 282-105 and Tennessee 234-143. The men picked up their first win of the season, beating Kentucky 226-159. They were not able to take home a second victory as they were bested by Tennessee 248-134.
The Cavalier women put the pedal to the metal immediately Wednesday night, taking home a win in the 200-yard freestyle relay final to start the events. Sophomore Claire Curzan opened for Virginia, bursting ahead to lead the pack with an excellent leg. Her teammates utilized the advantage and expanded it, coasting to an easy win and a Tennessee Invitational record time to boot at 1:24.68.
The squad’s next relay, the 200-yard medley final Thursday, was more of the same. It was senior Gretchen Walsh who entered the water first for the Cavaliers, and she seemed to be finishing her swim mere moments later. Her efforts recorded the eighth-fastest 50-yard backstroke performance in history, timed at 22.80 seconds. It was all but over after Walsh’s scorching swim, as Virginia eased into its second relay victory of the event.
Finally, in the last relay event of the invitational, the Cavaliers capped it off with a third win, this time in the 400-yard freestyle. They finished over five seconds before the second-place Tennessee squad, a fitting end to a dominant four-day stretch of relays.
Curzan seemed poised to make a statement of her own in the individual races. Most notable was her historic 200-yard backstroke race Friday, in which she and Walsh nearly mirrored each other through 150 yards.
However, in the final 50 yards, the unfathomable seemed to happen as Walsh appeared to be fading. However, in reality, it was actually Curzan who had kicked it up to a never-seen-before gear, putting the hammer down on the competition and racing to a new NCAA, American and U.S. Open record of 1:46.87. Her swim shaved nearly half a second off the previous NCAA record.
The sophomore would further establish her supremacy in the backstroke, winning the 100-yard final Thursday by nearly two full seconds to cap off an incredible performance in Tennessee.
Of course, Walsh had her own moment in the sun. She beat Curzan by more than two seconds in the 100-yard butterfly final Wednesday and set her own NCAA, American and U.S. Open record in the process. She turned in a spectacular time of 47.35 seconds.
Junior Aimee Canny contributed mightily to the Cavalier victories as well. Her first final, the 500-yard freestyle Wednesday, was neck and neck throughout as Canny battled with Tennessee freshman Ella Jansen. At the halfway mark, Canny found herself just seven-hundredths of a second ahead of the closely trailing Volunteer.
Jansen then hit the gas and exploded forward, picking up half a body length and a lead of four-tenths of a second with just 100 yards remaining. The veteran Canny, however, remained poised and waited for an opening. Eventually, she found it, shooting ahead of Jansen in the last 50 yards and sailing to the wall for the victory in a time of 4:35.43.
Canny was far from finished after that. She added a win in the 200-yard freestyle final Thursday, setting a new season best with a time of 1:42.67. Then she claimed the 200-yard breaststroke final by about a four-second margin Friday. Canny also saw progress in her 100-yard breaststroke swim, finishing second with a time of 58.64 seconds, marking the first time she had ever eclipsed the minute threshold.
In the 400-yard individual medley final Thursday, freshman Leah Hayes dominated. She touched the final wall nearly five seconds before the second place finisher, as her time of 4:01.34 was nearly a two-second improvement to her personal best. Hayes looks like a formidable asset for Virginia heading into the second half of the season.
Sophomore Cavan Gormsen added another Cavalier victory in the 1,650-yard freestyle Friday in what was a long and tight race until the end. Gormsen waited patiently and made her move with 500 yards to go, slowly pulling away from the competition in the end. She claimed the win in 16:12.78.
In the 200-yard butterfly final Friday, sophomore Tess Howley swam with a very different strategy than Gormsen. She pushed herself to the maximum over the first 100 yards to gain an advantage and then held on in the back end to pull out the victory in 1:54.06.
Fifth-year Noah Nichols proved to be the star of the show for the men, taking home two individual first-place finishes. His expertise in the breaststroke was clear to see as he claimed wins in the 100-yard and 200-yard breaststroke finals in 51.32 seconds and 1:52.96, respectively.
Junior Sebastian Sergile aided Nichols in the team’s quest for victory, taking first in the 200-yard individual medley final Wednesday. He fought back after falling behind initially, using his breaststroke leg to propel him to the lead and never looking back after. His swim clocked in at 1:42.63. While the men were able to conjure up some success over these four days, the season remains a letdown for the high expectations set prior to the season.
Virginia will next enter the pools Dec. 4-7 at the U.S. Open Championships in Greensboro, N.C.
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