“Going into the year, there was a lot of discourse about ‘Virginia is good, but can they continue to be this dominant?’” Curzan said. “And I think this year, by and above, we've exceeded everyone's expectations, including our own."
The Cavaliers cruised to dominant victories over both unranked Penn State squads, with the women sweeping all 10 events en route to a 154-61 win and the men taking all but one race to prevail 133-85.
Few college programs in any sport get the chance to chase a sixth, seventh or eighth straight national title. But if that dominance means some recruits would rather try to end the run than extend it, that’s simply the tax of being the best.
In a weekend designed to test depth and nerves, the Virginia women mostly made the CSCAA Dual Meet Challenge look like business as usual.
![“[That whole class] is everything they have been hyped up to be,” DeSorbo said. “Heilman and Williamson in particular are the real deal and other guys are elevating because of them.](https://snworksceo.imgix.net/cav/4f32b0b3-555e-43cd-9d36-27de7adbaef0.sized-1000x1000.png?w=1000&ar=4%3A3&fit=crop&crop=faces&facepad=3&auto=format)
Virginia now heads into a break from collegiate competition until the new year.
Events like the Power 4 Challenge are a deliberate bet that clearer competition, simple scoring and a strong multi-media presence can draw new eyes to a sport that already produces a large share of Olympic talent.
Despite limited high-caliber competition in their regular season schedule, Virginia has established itself as the way-too-early favorite to hoist a historic sixth national championship trophy come March.
The divers were told that the diving team was going to be put on “pause” for the foreseeable future.
In a fiery, competitive atmosphere, Virginia came out on top on both the men’s and women’s sides, with the men eking out a one-point victory.
“We want the stands packed. We want it loud. We want it obnoxious,” Fenwick said.
“I just want [the athletes] to be the best version of themselves," Fenwick said. "We want them to look back on their four-year experience here and look at it as the best time of their life."
The loss on the men’s side comes with a springboard-sized caveat — since Virginia no longer sponsors varsity diving, Florida’s divers competed completely uncontested and were still able to score toward the dual.
With standout talent graduated from both the Cavalier and Gator rosters, both individual races and relays will be closer this go around, according to Coach Todd DeSorbo.
With a lighter travel squad for Saturday’s exhibition at Navy’s Lejeune Hall in Annapolis, Md., the Cavaliers staged a scrimmage-style meet with a couple of twists.
“On the men’s side… the freshmen men are arguably the best class in NCAA history,” DeSorbo said in an interview with The Cavalier Daily. “And then on the women’s side, it’s a new identity, it’s different, because it’s the first time in six years we haven’t had a Douglass or a Walsh.”
