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Gretchen Walsh Breaks Own NCAA Record With 20.41 50 Freestyle In PRELIMS

2024 WOMEN’S NCAA SWIMMING AND DIVING CHAMPIONSHIPS

DAY 2 PRELIMS HEAT SHEET 

50 YARD FREESTYLE – PRELIMS

Top 8:

  1.  Gretchen Walsh (Virginia) – 20.41 *** New Everything Record***
  2.  Katharine Berkoff (NC State) – 21.23
  3.  Jasmine Nocentini (Virginia) – 21.29
  4.  Christiana Regenauer (Louisville) – 21.37
  5.  Gabi Albiero (Louisville) – 21.54
  6.  Brady Kendall (Michigan) – 21.69
  7.  Julia Dennis (Louisville)/ Maxine Parker (Virginia)/Grace Cooper (Texas) – 21.71

Gretchen Walsh has done it again breaking her own NCAA and American record in the 50 freestyle swimming a 20.41 in the final heat of the morning.

Walsh broke her own record of a 20.57 that she swam just last month at the ACC Championships. There she swam a 20.77 in prelims setting a new record before swimming a 20.57.

TOP 5 50 FREE PERFORMANCES ALL-TIME

  1. Gretchen Walsh, Virginia – 20.41 (2024)
  2. Gretchen Walsh, Virginia – 20.57 (2024)
  3. Gretchen Walsh, Virginia – 20.77 (2024)
  4. Gretchen Walsh, Virginia – 20.79 (2023)/Maggie MacNeil, LSU – 20.79 (2023)
  5. Gretchen Walsh, Virginia – 20.83 (2023)

If Walsh swims faster than a 20.79 tonight, she will hold the top five swims in the event in history (while sharing #5 with Maggie MacNeil).

Walsh was the last one off of the blocks within her reaction time of a 0.76, the slowest of all the swimmers in the 50 freestyle this morning, but flipped first at the 25 mark in a 9.99. At ACCs, she flipped in a 10.05.

Walsh will be the top seed in tonight’s A final. Last night, Walsh swam the fastest 50 backstroke ever with a 22.10.

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Mr. One Millionth Comment
7 months ago

I read the headline as GRETCHEN WALSH BREAKS DOWN NCAA RECORD and expected an in-depth video interview with Coleman. And when I didn’t find one, I was disappointed.

Alas, I scanned it too quickly as it really said: GRETCHEN WALSH BREAKS OWN NCAA RECORD. Coleman will have to wait!

fifth year, hanging on for dear life
7 months ago

Amy van Dyken somewhere probably taking full credit for this

DrewD
7 months ago

Even at 20.4 she can take her 100 out in 21.1 and post sub 44.5!

Winkelschleifer
7 months ago

Is there a Channel number on ESPN+?
I can‘t watch the stream, but I have over 400 ESPN+ Channels on tv.

LBSWIM
Reply to  Winkelschleifer
7 months ago

you have to look for “upcoming” or “live”. Scroll through until you see it. That’s how i found it. Right now you should be able to see Consolation 1 meter diving Live going on.

LBSWIM
Reply to  Winkelschleifer
7 months ago

Oh never mind. You said you can’t watch stream/live.

snailSpace
7 months ago

I predict 19.9 for finals. Nothing is impossible for her it seems like.

NCAAs will be closer this year
Reply to  snailSpace
7 months ago

Let me know your powerball picks as you are into long shots!

snailSpace
Reply to  NCAAs will be closer this year
7 months ago

Oh unhinged guesses are only fun if I don’t have a horse in the race so to speak. I admire Gretchen’s talent but I’m not particularly rooting for her, so I’m comfortable with extreme long shots xd.

Jack Merrywell
7 months ago

Screw it she’s going 17.5 lol

jeff
7 months ago

Bro what

Steve Nolan
7 months ago

My “old man yells at cloud” take today is – I hate when the live results updates all the records with the result of the race that just happened, clearing all the old ones.

I wanna know what the old records were that just got broken! I can see the new one, it’s down there in the results that I’m currently looking at!

jim
Reply to  Braden Keith
7 months ago

Apparently faster than you guys could type this morning as the 50 heats went by so fast to type updates…lol!

Reply to  Steve Nolan
7 months ago

Preach.

snailSpace
Reply to  Steve Nolan
7 months ago

What’s funny is that a few weeks ago I’ve seen someone praising this exact thing, and that comment had a very similar vote ratio to yours 😂

Last edited 7 months ago by snailSpace
Steve Nolan
Reply to  snailSpace
7 months ago

Someone PRAISED it?!?!?!

It’s not like it makes it easier to see when a record’s broken – they put a letter or an asterisk or w/e next to it!

The literal only issue with that is it only displays one letter, so maybe you don’t know if it counts as more than one record. But I do not want to meet the person that would prefer that over knowing what the old records were.

snailSpace
Reply to  Steve Nolan
7 months ago

Yep.

But I might have misunderstood. It was very weird to me too that someone would like that.

About Braden Keith

Braden Keith

Braden Keith is the Editor-in-Chief and a co-founder/co-owner of SwimSwam.com. He first got his feet wet by building The Swimmers' Circle beginning in January 2010, and now comes to SwimSwam to use that experience and help build a new leader in the sport of swimming. Aside from his life on the InterWet, …

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