Record 18 Virginia Women’s Swimmers Qualify for NCAA Championships
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The No. 1 Virginia women’s swimming & diving team – the three-time reigning NCAA Champions – had a program record 18 swimmers qualify for the 2024 NCAA Division I Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships, the NCAA announced on Wednesday (March 6). This year’s championships will be held March 20-23 at the Jack Bauerle Pool at the Gabrielsen Natatorium in Athens, Georgia.
Swimmers qualified for the championships by meeting the established minimum time for the events in which they entered. Divers will be determined by performances achieved at the Zone Diving Championships held March 10-16. Selected divers will be announced on Sunday, March 17.
UVA’s 18 swimmers are the most by any school to qualify for this year’s championship. The Cavaliers combined for 40 individual events among those swimmers. Eight of the 18 qualified in three individual events and six made two individual events. Virginia has nine competitors in the field who have earned All-America honors during their careers.
Virginia will have relay teams in all five events (200 medley, 800 free, 200 free, 400 medley and 400 free). Those lineups will be determined in advance of the championships.
UVA will be attempting to become the first school since 1996 to win four consecutive titles. Stanford won five straight team championships from 1992 to 1996. Texas is the only other program to claim four-or-more consecutive titles after winning the championships in five consecutive seasons from 1984 to 1988.
The Cavaliers competing at the NCAA Championships are:
Ella Bathurst (200 IM, 400 IM), Izzy Bradley (100 back), Aimee Canny (500 free, 200 free, 200 breast), Cavan Gormsen (500 free, 200 free, 1650 free), Abby Harter (200 IM, 200 fly), Tess Howley (200 back, 200 fly), Anna Keating (400 IM, 200 breast), Sophia Knapp (500 free), Ella Nelson (200 IM, 400 IM, 200 breast), Jasmine Nocentini (50 free, 100 breast, 100 free), Carly Novelline (100 fly, 100 back), Maxine Parker (50 free, 200 free, 100 free), Maggie Schalow (200 fly), Zoe Skirboll (100 breast), Reilly Tiltmann (200 free, 100 back, 200 back), Alex Walsh (200 IM, 400 IM, 200 breast), Gretchen Walsh (50 free, 100 fly, 100 free) and Emma Weber (100 breast, 200 breast).
A total of six Cavaliers return to the championships as NCAA Champions. That group has a combined 32 NCAA gold medals. That list includes Canny, Nelson, Parker, Tiltmann and Alex and Gretchen Walsh. Alex Walsh tops that group with 13 individual and relay titles during her UVA career. Gretchen Walsh has 11 NCAA first-place finishes.
Career NCAA Championships
Alex Walsh (13)
200 IM (2021, 2022), 400 IM (2022, 2023), 200 fly (2022)
200 free Relay (2022), 400 free Relay (2022, 2023), 800 free Relay (2021, 2023), 400 Medley Relay (2022, 2023), 200 Medley Relay (2023)
Gretchen Walsh (11)
100 free (2022, 2023), 100 back (2023)
200 free Relay (2022, 2023), 400 free Relay (2022, 2023), 200 Medley Relay (2022, 2023), 400 Medley Relay (2022, 2023)
Aimee Canny (2)
800 free Relay (2023), 400 Medley Relay (2023)
Ella Nelson (2)
800 free Relay (2021, 2023)
Maxine Parker (2)
200 free Relay (2023), 400 free Relay (2023)
Reilly Tiltmann (2)
400 free Relay (2022), 800 free Relay (2023)
UP NEXT
Virginia’s divers will compete in the 2024 NCAA Zone A Championships March 11-13 in Princeton, N.J., to determine divers that will compete at the 2024 NCAA Championships. UVA will be represented by Lizzy Kaye, Maddy Grosz, Morgan Manley, Nick Sanders and Dean Treanor.