Gretchen Walsh Soars to 47-Second Breakthrough in 100 Fly!

NCAA Female Swimmer of the Year: Gretchen Walsh Achieves 47-Second Milestone in 100 Fly

One year prior, the 100 butterfly finale at the NCAA Women’s Championships showcased the three speediest women in history (at that moment), and the competition was thrilling: Kate Douglass emerged victorious that evening, recording 48.46 to surpass reigning Olympic champion Maggie Mac Neil by five hundredths, as both shattered the previous U.S. Open and NCAA records in the event. Torri Huske, who later clinched Olympic gold in the 100-meter fly just over a year later, made history as the third woman ever to swim under 49 with her third-place finish.

The 2023 finale lacked all those athletes, with Douglass and Mac Neil having completed their collegiate swimming and Huske taking an Olympic redshirt. However, the winning time was a remarkable second faster as a competitor who hadn’t even participated in the 100 fly the previous year transformed the race into her personal reign. Gretchen Walsh had chosen instead to swim the 100 backstroke during the middle day of the NCAA Championships in each of her initial two college seasons, but her shift to butterfly in 2023-24 proved to be a record-breaking decision.

The record set by Douglass in March 2023 was quickly surpassed in the early days of the 2024-25 season. Walsh posted a time of 48.30 at the Tennessee Invite in November, though unofficially since she was competing in the 100 free, and then the University of Virginia Cavalier swam even quicker at the ACC Championships in February with a time of 48.25. She began her NCAA Championships by obliterating the all-time records in the 50 freestyle before clocking 48.26 in the 100 fly prelims, just a fraction shy of her record.

That evening, she made all prior times and her rivals appear inadequate. She reached 9.94 at the 25-yard mark and 21.75 at the halfway point, two-thirds of a second quicker than record pace, clearly indicating her intent to become the first woman under 48. Walsh concluded her astonishing swim by touching the wall in 47.42.

“The objective was to surpass the 48-barrier, and dropping that far below it was something I thought was remarkable,” Walsh shared. “I’m absolutely thrilled with the time, and I believe I executed the race effectively just as I intended. Everything aligned perfectly, and that was the outcome I achieved, and I’m genuinely pleased with it.”

This swim would stand out as the pinnacle of a remarkable NCAA Championships for Walsh, who later that night narrowly missed her own American and NCAA records in the 100 back while leading off Virginia’s 400 medley relay, just short of her extraordinary aim of becoming the first woman under 48 in both the 100 yards of fly and back within the same evening. She capped off the meet by breaking the all-time record in the 100 free previously held by Simone Manuel.

Remarkably, Walsh has already surpassed this astonishing 100 fly record during the first half of her senior season at UVA. Returning to the Tennessee Invite, she triumphed in the 100 fly with a time of 47.35, and she might aim to reach the 46-second range by season’s end. Having become a world-record holder, an Olympian, and the star of the Short Course World Championships since her last collegiate appearance, Walsh has one final opportunity to leave her mark on college swimming with another set of incredible benchmarks for upcoming generations of sprinters to pursue.