New Chapters Starting for UVA Swimming

By Jeff White (jwhite@virginia.edu)
VirginiaSports.com

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — In women’s swimming & diving, the University of Virginia’s rivals have been pointing toward the 2025-26 season for several years, and it’s easy to understand why. For the first time since 2019-20, the Cavaliers’ roster will not include at least one of the Walsh sisters.

UVA has won five straight NCAA titles, thanks in no small part to the contributions of Alex and Gretchen Walsh.

Alex, who arrived on Grounds in the summer of 2020, received an extra year of eligibility because of the COVID-19 pandemic. She’s the only swimmer in NCAA history to have helped lead her team to five national championships, and she’s also the only one to have won at least one individual title in five NCAA meets.

Gretchen joined the program in 2021-22, and like her sister, she left with nine NCAA individual titles. At this year’s NCAA meet, Gretchen won three individual events and swam on four championship relay teams.

“The Walshes have just meant so much to our program,” UVA head coach Todd DeSorbo said in March after the NCAA championships in Federal Way, Wash.

The sisters will continue to train in Charlottesville, but as professionals, and a program that survived the losses of Paige Madden and Kate Douglass, both of whom joined the Walshes on the U.S. Olympic team in 2024, now has another significant hurdle to clear.

“I think other teams are like, ‘Finally, they’re gone,’ ” DeSorbo said last week in his office at the Aquatic and Fitness Center.

If the Wahoos are seen are vulnerable, that’s fine with him. He welcomes the challenge.

“I don’t want to say I’m more excited,” DeSorbo said, “because it’s exciting having Gretchen and Alex and those types as well, but to me, what’s fun is developing people and going from point A to point B. Certainly Alex and Gretchen will still be around, and I’ll continue to try to develop them, but now it’s a new crop and a lot of youngsters.”

With such swimmers as Katie Grimes, Claire Curzan, Leah Hayes, Anna Moesch, Tess Howley, Aimee Canny, Cavan Gormsen and Emma Weber returning, the Cavaliers still have plenty of star power. For the past four seasons, however, UVA swimmers have known “that if you’re stepping out on a relay with Gretchen, the relay’s going to win,” DeSorbo said.

“I don’t think Gretchen’s ever been on a losing relay in college. It takes more than one person, but when you have that one, everybody else on the relay is also very confident. And I also think, at some level, some people are like, ‘Well, pressure’s not on me. If I don’t do so great, it’s OK, Gretchen’s here.’

“Now the team knows they don’t have that. But I think it’s a positive thing. I think that the rest of the team is like, ‘OK, now it’s my time to shine. I want that, I’m excited for that, I get to contribute more and make more of an impact.’ ”

DeSorbo, who’s heading into his ninth season at UVA, cited Curzan’s victory in the 100-yard backstroke at NCAAs this year. Curzan edged Florida’s Bella Simmons by .01 second.

“We’re gonna have a lot more races like Claire’s,” DeSorbo said, “and that was so exciting. We all went crazy, and just erupted. She hits the wall and you can’t tell who won, and so you look up and you see the one by her name and everybody goes crazy. And for years now, with Alex and Kate and Gretchen, it’s kind of been like, all right, well, there’s no excitement [about the finish], because she’s going to win. The excitement is whether she breaks a record or whatever.”

If this is a period of transition for the UVA women, that’s also the case for the men, who are eager to close the gap between the programs. It has widened considerably in recent years.

At NCAAs, the men finished 10^th in 2018-19, ninth in 2020-21, and 10^th in 2021-22. But they slipped to 15^th in 2022-23, to 17^th in 2023-24, and to 32^nd this year.

“I think the biggest issue is we’ve had pretty bad luck with some of our personnel,” DeSorbo said. “We’ve had very, very high-level athletes not work out, and by not work out, I don’t mean they were here and they just didn’t get better, because all of our guys get better. Every one of our guys improves whether they’re our best guy down to our 30th guy. I think this year we were 90-some-percent lifetime best on the men’s side, which is absurd.”

For various reasons, though, Virginia has experienced significant attrition on the men’s side.

“Either injuries that have caused people to have to be done early,” DeSorbo said, “or behavioral issues that have caused people to be done early. Over the last five years, we’ve had a number of our most talented guys not complete a season or [leave the program with eligibility remaining]. I think another big issue is we’ve had very few fifth-years, where everybody else in the country has had them … In the four or five years that you’ve been able to have a COVID fifth year, we’ve had one on the men’s side. One. And he didn’t make it through the season.”

Help is on the way. The nation’s top-ranked recruiting class will join the men’s program this summer, and it includes three swimmers ranked among the top 10 in the graduating Class of 2025: Thomas Heilman from Western Albemarle High School in Crozet; Maximus Williamson from Southlake, Texas; and Nathan Szobota from Richmond.

Heilman’s brother, Matthew, is a rising senior on the men’s team and swam on the 400 medley relay team that placed 15th at the NCAA team in March.

Thomas Heilman and Williamson are widely considered the nation’s top two recruits, and Szobota isn’t far behind. Their classmates at UVA will include Thomas Mercer, Blake Amlicke, and Josh Howat, any of whom “might have been No. 1 in any other recruiting year,” DeSorbo said. “They’re damn good too.”

A dozen swimmers make up the incoming class, “and I wouldn’t be surprised if all 12 of them make our ACC championship team as freshmen,” DeSorbo said.

They’ll join a solid core of veterans. Of the eight Cavaliers who qualified for the NCAA men’s championships in March. Returning swimmers include rising sophomores David King and Spencer Nicholas, who have already set school records.

King and Nicholas are among the most talented swimmers to enter the men’s program in recent years. “We just need more of that,” DeSorbo said, “and now we’re getting it.”

This is a pivotal year for the men’s program, DeSorbo acknowledged. “They’re kind of where our women were five years ago. We need to be good. We need to perform well, and I’m confident we will. And when we do, recruiting is going to be enhanced.”

Recruiting on the women’s side continues to go well. “We’ve got an unbelievable [incoming class],” DeSorbo said.

Eight freshmen and three transfers are joining the Cavalier women this summer. Marquee recruits include Madi Mintenko from Colorado, Sara Curtis from Italy, and Lana Pudar, a two-time Olympian from Bosnia & Herzegovina.

“We’re going to be the deepest we’ve ever been by far,” DeSorbo said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if we have more NCAA qualifiers next year than we ever have on the women’s side.”

A new chapter is beginning for the women’s program, but DeSorbo is confident the Cavaliers’ dynasty can continue.

“I think if we can win [in 2025-26], if we can win six in a row, then we can win 10 in a row,” he said, “because to me, it’s like we’re starting over. We’re going for our first one, and we’re going to try to start another streak. We’re not really adding on. We are, but we aren’t. It’s a new dynamic.”

And that, DeSorbo added, is “really exciting. I can’t wait. It’s gonna be a lot of fun.”

To receive Jeff White’s articles by email, click the appropriate box in this link to subscribe.