Live summary of the first day's finals

2024 NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships

The first day of the World Cup Finals

We made it, folks: The 2024 NCAA Women's Tournament begins tonight. The 200 medley relay and 800 freestyle relay are underway in Athens, Georgia, and although they are only two events on the first day of the four, there is plenty of exciting swimming ahead of this tournament.

Last year, Virginia won both of the first-day relays and went on to sweep all five relays, a feat that had not been accomplished since 2018. The Cavaliers have not lost a relay in the NCAA Championships since opening night of the 2022 NCAAs when they placed second to Stanford in the freestyle relay 800 metres.

The big choice the Cavaliers have is how to use them Gretchen Walsh This course. At the ACCs, she skipped the usual 200 medley relay in favor of topping the 800 freestyle relay, clocking 1:40.23 for the third-fastest swim ever. The relay was just 0.37 seconds off Stanford's NCAA record and breaking that would give them all five NCAA relay records. Will Walsh make the same choice here at the NCAAs, or perhaps race both and forego one?

This decision determines how the session will proceed. If she swims both, Virginia will dominate the first day. Leaving it out of either sequence opens the door – perhaps just a little – for another program to get upset. Ohio State had an impressive 200 medley relay in conference and is the top seed. If they get that back it could lead to a run at the title. Likewise, Florida could spoil the Cavaliers' dreams of sweeping the relay again in the 800 freestyle. The Gators ran an SEC record of 6:49.65 at their conference championships Bella Sims He ran in the 200 free SEC record of 1:40.90.

Women's 200 medley relay

• NCAA record: 1:31.51 – Virginia (J. Walsh, A. Walsh, L. Cuomo, K. Douglas), 2023
• Meet Record: 1:31.51 – Virginia (J. Walsh, A. Walsh, L. Comeau, K. Douglas), 2023
• American record: 1:31.51 – Virginia (J. Walsh, A. Walsh, L. Cuomo, K. Douglas), 2023
• US Open record: 1:31.51 – Virginia (J. Walsh, A. Walsh, L. Cuomo, K. Douglas), 2023
• 2023 NCAA Champion: 1:31.51 – Virginia (J. Walsh, A. Walsh, L. Cuomo, K. Douglas)

Top 8:

1. Virginia (J. Walsh, Nocentini, Novellin, Parker) – 1:31.58
2. Ohio State (Funderburke, Bach, Zennick, Evan) – 1:33.09
3. Florida (Runnels, Main, Peoples, Cronk) – 1:34.30
4. Cal – 1:34.55
5. Tennessee – 1:34.64
6. Texas – 1:34.74
7. USC – 1:34.81
8. Stanford – 1:35.10

DQs: NC State, Princeton

The Cavaliers wasted no time in announcing their presence in Athens. This win 200 medley of Gretchen WalshYasmine Notitini, Carly Novellin, And Maxine Parker It is Virginia's ninth straight NCAA Tournament win, a streak dating back to 2022.

Virginia dominated the race, winning by 1.51 seconds. They reached 1:31.58, missing their NCAA record from 2023 by only seven hundredths. This is an impressive feat, considering that the 2023 relay had 20.34 anchors from Kate Douglas.

G. Walsh started things off in Virginia with the fastest 50 home run in history. Launched 22.10, exceeding Maggie MacNeilMark 22.52, a difference of 0.42 seconds. Nocentini followed up with a split of 25.79 in the breaststroke, a few tenths slower than the 25.49 she swam at the ACCs. The Cavaliers made an interesting choice to leave Alex Walsh Off that relay, he went with Novelline on the fly. I split 22.38 and then Parker got things back for the team in 21.38.

After having a stellar swim at Big Tens, Ohio State — rocking some cool football jerseys — improved on their conference championship swim by 0.38 seconds. The first three stages of the relay were faster than in February: Nia Funderburke It went 23.44, an improvement from 23.61, Hannah Bach He swam 25.68, down from 25.92, and Kitkat Zenic Improved from 22.45 to 22.33 here in Athens. They got an anchor of 21.64 from Teresa Evan Giving them a combined time of 1:33.09 for second place.

Florida band Aris Runnels (23.82), Molly Mayne (26.71), Olivia Peoples (22.42), and Michaela Cronk (21.35) They added 0.12 seconds to their winning time at SECs as they finished third with a time of 1:34.30. But from a points perspective, this is a huge improvement for them as they were eliminated last year.

Speaking of DQs, there were two at this event. For the team standings race, the most notable was NC State. The Wolfpack has the smallest rosters of schools projected to finish in the top 15 with just six individual qualifiers. It's going to be a close race for the top 10, and now the Wolfpack are playing from behind. Catherine Berkoff He split 20.35 at anchor but was the early taker (-0.17).

Within the top eight, the other two teams to drop time from their seeding were Tennessee (fifth, 1:34.64) and Stanford (eighth, 1:35.10). On a sequence of folders, Mona Mishari Bach tied for the fastest breaststroke split in the field with 25.68. while, Amy Tang He had a big swim in the Cardinal relay, dropping anchor in 21.23.

Women's 800 freestyle relay

• NCAA record: 6:45.91 – Stanford (S. Manuel, L. Neal, E. Eastin, K. Ledecky), 2017
• Meet record: 6:45.91 — Stanford (S. Manuel, L. Neal, E. Eastin, K. Ledecky), 2017
• American record: 6:45.91 — Stanford (S. Manuel, L. Neal, E. Eastin, K. Ledecky), 2017
• US Open record: 6:45.91 – Stanford (S. Manuel, L. Neal, E. Eastin, K. Ledecky), 2017
• 2023 NCAA Champion: 6:49.82 – Virginia (A. Caney, A. Walsh, R. Tiltman, E. Nelson)

Top 8:

1. Florida (Sims, Ivey, Weyant, Cronk) – 6:48.59
2. Tennessee (Duthwright, Spink, Mrozinski, Fuller) – 6:50.82
3. Stanford (Rogier, Nordmann, Mannion, Wilson) – 6:51.17
4. Virginia – 6:51.41
5. Indiana – 6:54.03
6. Georgia – 6:54.67
7. Texas – 6:54.68
8. Michigan – 6:54.70

Results within the first day

1. Florida – 72
2. Virginia – 70
3. Tennessee – 62
4. Stanford – 54
5. Texas – 50
6. Cal – 48
7. Indiana/USC/Ohio State – 36
8. (association)
9. (association)
10. Michigan – 32
11. Georgia – 26
12. Wisconsin/Louisville – 20
13. (association)
14. Duke — 18
15. United Nations Command – 14
16. Arizona State – 10
17. Virginia Tech – 8
18. Auburn/Texas A&M – 4
19. (association)
20. Alabama – 2