As the great Vince Lombardi once said, winning is not a “sometimes” thing. Winning is an “all the time” thing. Clearly, the No. 1 ranked Virginia women’s swimming and diving team takes that message to heart. At the ACC Swimming and Diving Championships this weekend in Greensboro, N.C., the Cavaliers proved why they are the nation’s very best.
Virginia finished a whopping 310.5 points ahead of the second place squad, Stanford. To further highlight how incredible the victory is, for context, the Cavaliers nearly scored more points than Boston College, Southern Methodist, Georgia Tech, Notre Dame, Duke and Virginia Tech combined, making their competition appear juvenile.
Virginia captured first place in 13 events. Any ACC title is special, but a few stood out among the treasure trove of gold medals. Graduate student Alex Walsh won the 200-meter fly and 200-meter breaststroke and was part of four champion relay units.
In particular, her breaststroke win stands out, as she became the first swimmer to ever win the 200-meter breaststroke four times. She is the eighth swimmer in program history to win an ACC title in the same event four times. With her victories, Alex Walsh became the winningest swimmer in conference history.
Alex Walsh finishes her ACC career with 12 individual titles, and 32 overall — both of which are number one all time. The individual record was previously held by Sue Walsh of NC State, who earned 11. And no, they are not related in any way other than greatness. However, Alex Walsh’s sister, junior Gretchen Walsh, did find her way to the podium ad nauseum.
Gretchen Walsh collected a monstrous sum of seven ACC titles — three of which were from solo events. Clearly, other swimmers have yet to learn that when Gretchen Walsh is in the pool, you get out.
In addition to the superstar Walsh sisters, five other Cavaliers also won an event. Notably, multiple underclassmen stepped up — which is essential, as both Walsh sisters are in their final year of competition. Coach Todd DeSorbo is in need of some new headliners for next season, and clearly, he has some.
Sophomore Claire Curzan won the 200-meter backstroke with a time of 1:47.38, which was an ACC Championship record and a Greensboro Aquatic Center record. Curzan also contributed to four championship-winning relays. Other young champions included freshmen Katie Grimes, Anna Moesch, both of whom earned two titles in their debuts at the ACC Championships.
As a cherry on top, the ACC Championships counted as swimming and diving’s iteration of the Commonwealth Clash. After adding a point from the Cavalier women, Virginia leads the rival Hokies 7-4.
Aside from enjoying an easy win over its middling nemesis, Virginia will now prepare for the NCAA Championships, which will be held March 19-22 in Federal Way, Wash. Fresh off of dominating the entire ACC, the No. 1 ranked Cavaliers are clearly the team to beat. It is incredibly likely that Virginia will capture its fifth consecutive national championship. The only question is of how large the Cavaliers’ lead will be.
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