Gretchen Walsh Named Academic All-America Team Member of the Year
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – Virginia senior Gretchen Walsh (Nashville, Tenn.) was named the CSC Academic All-America Team Member of the Year for swimming and diving in honors announced Tuesday (April 22) by the College Sports Communicators.
Walsh is joined on the CSC Academic All-America first team by grad student Alex Walsh and sophomore Claire Curzan. Sophomore Cavan Gormsen was named to the third team.
Gretchen Walsh is a Commerce major with a 3.85 GPA. The senior repeated as champion in three individual races and as part of four relays at the 2025 National Championships. She won her fourth consecutive 100-yard freestyle title, breaking her own NCAA and American record in the event with a time of 44.71 seconds. Walsh also captured NCAA titles in the 50-yard freestyle and 100-yard butterfly, leading Virginia to its fifth consecutive NCAA championship.
Gretchen Walsh ended her career going 16-for-16 in NCAA relays, swimming on victorious relays in all 16 events she competed in over four years. A win in the 400-yard freestyle relay on the final night of the 2025 NCAA Championship capped the feat. She also swam on the winning 200-yard freestyle relay and the 200- and 400-yard medley relays. She was named the College Swimming & Diving Coaches Association of America Women’s Swimmer of the Year for the second consecutive time in 2024-25.
She finished her career with 25 NCAA titles, including nine in individual events, and 27 All-America honors. Walsh set 11 world records (nine individual, two relay) and won seven world titles (five individual, two relay) at the 2024 World Aquatics 25m Championships and was named the Best Female Swimmer.
Gretchen Walsh represented the U.S. at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, winning gold as part of world record-setting 400-meter and mixed 400-meter relays. She earned a silver medal in the 100-yard butterfly after breaking the Olympic record in the preliminaries and as part of the 400-meter freestyle relay.
This is Gretchen Walsh’s third time being named an Academic All-American, the second time for Alex Walsh. Curzan and Gormsen have earned the honor in their first year of eligibility for the honor.
Gretchen Walsh is the second Cavalier swimmer to be named the Academic All-American of the Year, joining Lexi Cuomo, who earned the honor in 2023. This is the fifth time that a Cavalier has earned the top honor in any sport.
Since 1952, College Sports Communicators (formerly CoSIDA) has bestowed Academic All-American recognition on male and female athletes in Divisions I, II, and III of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), as well as athletes in the NAIA, other U.S. four-year schools, two-year colleges, and Canadian universities, covering all championship sports. The award honors student-athletes who have performed well academically and athletically while regularly competing for their institution.
During the 1987–88 academic year, College Sports Communicators began selecting one student as the most outstanding team member. In 1996, CSC began selecting two outstanding team members yearly, one each from the college and university divisions. In 2011–12, when the program was expanded to include four sets of teams (Division I, Division II, Division III and a College Division), four winners were chosen, one from each division. Swimming & Diving was part of the At-Large program until 2022-23, when it was given its own category.