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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
10 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
10 months ago

Amy van Dyken somewhere probably taking full credit for this

DrewD
10 months ago

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

Winkelschleifer
10 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
10 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
10 months ago

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

snailSpace
10 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
10 months ago

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

snailSpace
Reply to  NCAAs will be closer this year
10 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
10 months ago

Screw it she’s going 17.5 lol

jeff
10 months ago

Bro what

Steve Nolan
10 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
10 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
10 months ago

Preach.

snailSpace
Reply to  Steve Nolan
10 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 10 months ago by snailSpace
Steve Nolan
Reply to  snailSpace
10 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
10 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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