Virginia ladies’s swimming: A dynasty redefined – The Cavalier Daily

Before a single swimmer touched the wall on the primary finals session Wednesday, the published sales space had already conceptualized the story of the 2026 NCAA DI Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships.

“Virginia doesn’t have superstars this year,” the commentators stated. 

The Walsh sisters — essentially the most embellished duo in collegiate historical past — are gone. The Walsh sisters accounted for 18 mixed particular person NCAA titles all through their collegiate careers. Gretchen scored 231 out of a potential 240 particular person factors and went an ideal 16-for-16 relay titles throughout her 4 years. Alex gained particular person championships in 5 completely different occasions and was a part of 5 straight group titles. 

Nobody severe thought their departure would value Virginia the title — the Cavaliers had been ranked No. 1 within the CSCAA ballot all season lengthy and have been favored in each projection. But the reasoning went that this might lastly develop into a group race that was a foregone conclusion for the final 5 years. 

It is tough to overstate how comprehensively the Cavalier ladies dismantled that narrative. Virginia scored 589 factors — essentially the most in program historical past and the second-highest complete by any ladies’s group within the final 20 years — swept all 5 relays, set an NCAA document within the 400-yard freestyle relay and had 16 of 18 swimmers place in scoring place. The Cavaliers beat second place by 208.5 factors, a margin wider than each last hole from the earlier 5 nationwide championships. 

“I think there was a lot of commentary about the team without the Walshes and without [Kate Douglass], and can they continue what they’re doing?” Coach Todd DeSorbo stated. “I don’t think [the team] were offended by it, but I think it motivated them significantly.”

When Gretchen dove within the pool, as DeSorbo put again in September, “she was going to win — it was a matter of by how much and will she break a record.” Without her, many individuals assumed that the margin would shrink and the dominance would fade.

“[Gretchen] was so larger than life that [she] kind of cast a shadow on a lot of people,” DeSorbo stated. “She blocked the sun … I think now that the rest of them [have] the sun shining on them, … they’re able to blossom.” 

This was not the diminished model of Virginia grinding out a win that many assumed would possibly happen. This was, by practically each measure, essentially the most dominant championship in this system’s historical past with contributors throughout the whole roster.

“For us, we tried to take the approach that it’s a blank slate this year, that we haven’t won any, we’re starting all over,” DeSorbo stated. “Just start a new streak in a little bit of a different way, you know, where depth really will carry us through.”

Consider the 200-yard breaststroke swum Friday. Five Cavaliers — seniors Aimee Canny, Emma Weber and Zoe Skirboll alongside freshman Sophia Umstead and sophomore Leah Hayes — all positioned within the high 12. Canny positioned second with a 2:03.09, Weber completed eighth and the remaining three scored from their morning swims. Virginia scored 48 factors from a single occasion, essentially the most any group scored in any occasion all meet.  

Or take into account the prelim session that preceded it. Fifteen of Virginia’s 18 opponents scored factors in a single day — 16 did all through the whole meet. Junior Claire Curzan made an unprecedented prediction firstly of the season that every one 18 qualifiers had the potential to attain — and he or she got here inside two.

“I think we have the potential to have all of our NCAA qualifiers score at NCAAs, which has never been done before,” Curzan stated to The Cavalier Daily in September.

Even if Virginia had scored zero factors throughout all 5 relays — erasing 200 from its last complete — the Cavaliers nonetheless would have gained the championship on particular person scoring alone. A Virginia swimmer made the championship last in each single occasion on the meet apart from diving, which the University now not sponsors.

“I was hopeful that somebody would step up,” DeSorbo stated. “And it’s been four, five, six, seven, eight people that have really stepped up from the returning perspective, and … I never would have thought that our first-year class would have performed as well as they have.”

One of essentially the most dramatic indicators of this roster’s depth got here on the opening night time of the meet, within the 800-yard freestyle relay. This occasion was one which has haunted Virginia — after inserting fourth in 2024 and second in 2025, it was the lone impediment stopping them from sweeping all 5 relays. As swimmers are solely capable of compete in 4 relay occasions, Gretchen was unable to compete on the relay at NCAAs, and lots of credit score these finishes to her absence.

But this 12 months, Virginia discovered itself again on the high of the rostrum for the primary time since 2023. Canny, freshman Madi Mintenko and sophomore Bailey Hartman all swam solidly, however by the point sophomore Anna Moesch dove in for the anchor, Michigan, Cal, Texas and Indiana have been all forward. Moesch turned in 1:13.99 on the 150-yard mark and powered dwelling to complete her leg in a 1:39.03 — the quickest break up within the occasion’s historical past. She took the Cavaliers from fifth place to first in a single 200-yard leg, and Virginia set a brand new meet document of 6:45.21.

“I think it just shows how much depth we have as a team,” Moesch said. “And it shows how many people, with the absence of [the Walshes], were able to step up to the plate and wanted to step up to the plate for their team.” 

Of course, as any meet has, there have been headliners. Curzan swept the backstroke occasions for the second consecutive 12 months, setting meet and pool information within the 100-yard backstroke with a 48.24 — the second-fastest efficiency in historical past, trailing solely Walsh’s NCAA document. The subsequent closest finisher, Michigan’s Bella Sims, touched greater than a second behind.

Saturday, Curzan went on to clock a 1:46.10 within the 200-yard backstroke after a gutsy begin, positioning herself physique lengths in entrance of the remainder of the sphere. Her last time was only one hundredth of a second from her personal American document.

Moesch nabbed her first particular person NCAA title within the 200-yard freestyle in 1:39.23, a time bettered in historical past solely by Missy Franklin’s 1:39.10 from 2015. She went on to position second within the 100-yard freestyle and eighth within the 50-yard, incomes First Team All-American honors in all of her particular person occasions. 

Sara Curtis, a highly-touted recruit and Italian Olympian, lived as much as her billing. The explosive freshman positioned second within the 50-yard freestyle behind senior U.S. Olympian Torri Huske of Stanford, within the quickest time ever recorded by a freshman — quicker than Gretchen went on the identical level in her collegiate profession.

“Gretchen actually said to me at one point early in the fall, [Sara] is going to break my record,” DeSorbo stated.

Curtis additionally contributed to 4 relay golds — the ultimate being the 400-yard freestyle relay that clocked 3:05.26 to interrupt the NCAA document, one which had been set three years earlier by Kate Douglass, Alex Walsh, Maxine Parker and Gretchen Walsh. 

The momentum constructed from the highest finish of the roster was contagious. Junior captain Tess Howley swam a grueling double on Saturday morning — qualifying in third for the 200-yard butterfly last after which, minutes later, touching tenth within the 200-yard backstroke with a private greatest. DeSorbo erupted poolside, face purple and veins popping after Howley’s efficiency.

“Going into the year, there was a lot of discourse about ‘Virginia is good, but can they continue to be this dominant?’” Curzan stated. “And I think this year, by and above, we’ve exceeded everyone’s expectations, including our own. The Walshes are awesome. They’re the best duo in NCAA history … to be able to think that this team collectively can achieve even more than that, I think it’s really, really special.” 

DeSorbo arrived in 2017 to a program that had completed eighth at NCAAs the season prior. Nine seasons later, it has gained six consecutive nationwide championships — essentially the most ever in ladies’s swimming, and a feat completed by solely 5 different ladies’s applications within the historical past of the NCAA.

According to DeSorbo, affiliate head coach Tyler Fenwick pulled him apart earlier than the trophy ceremony on Saturday night time. 

“Who would have thought,” Fenwick stated, “in 2017 in August that we’d be sitting here winning our sixth title in a row?”

The reply, it seems, was there all alongside. Not within the ‘superstars’ — although Virginia had these — however within the 18 ladies who collectively outperformed even essentially the most dominant people the game had ever seen. 

They did it with out the Walshes. They did it and not using a diving program. They did it with out superstars. Or, extra exactly, they did it with 18 of them.