UVA Swimming Soars Into OffseasonUVA Swimming Soars Into Offseason
Jack Spitser/Virginia Athletics

UVA Swimming Soars Into Offseason

At the NCAA swimming & diving championships last month in Atlanta, the UVA women won their sixth straight team title, and the UVA men placed ninth, their best finish in five years.

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

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — The University of Virginia women’s swimming & diving team made history on March 21. In Atlanta, the Cavaliers totaled 208.5 more points than runner-up Stanford to win the NCAA team title for a record sixth consecutive year.

A week later, also at the McAuley Aquatics Center, UVA placed ninth at the NCAA men’s meet. That was the Cavaliers’ best finish since the 2020-21 season.

Todd DeSorbo has overseen both programs since August 2017. Asked which postseason accomplishment excited him more, DeSorbo paused before answering. He’s not taking the women’s historic run for granted, “but the guys’ meet was just unbelievable,” DeSorbo said.

“It was so much fun. I would say that one was more exciting and more fun just because we hadn't done it yet, and we needed to do it and we had the pieces to do it and it all really came together. What we knew could happen, what we hoped would happen, it all happened, and it's like, OK, the guys have arrived.”

The UVA women were favored to repeat as NCAA champions, but the degree to which they dominated in Atlanta was unexpected. The Cavaliers’ 589 points were a program record, and 16 swimmers of their 18 swimmers scored points at the meet and earned first- or second-team All-America honors.

“I would say that part of it was what was really exciting,” DeSorbo said. “It wasn't necessarily that that we won; it was the manner that we won. We scored more points [as a team] than we ever have. We had more individuals score than we've ever had score at the meet. We had 16 individuals score. Prior to that, the most we'd ever had was 13. And the margin of victory was bigger. And so that is really special, because at the beginning of the year, everybody was like, ‘Well, they don't have the Walshes or Kate Douglass anymore.’ So they think that we're going to come back to earth a little bit, that we don't have the superstars, but we might've had more superstars this year.”

Alex Walsh and her sister, Gretchen, each won nine NCAA individual titles as Wahoos. At last year’s NCAA meet, Gretchen Walsh won three individual events and swam on four championship relay teams.

In Atlanta last month, the Hoos won all five relay events. Sophomore Anna Moesch swam in four of those relays and also won the 200-yard freestyle.

“It just shows how much depth we have as a team,” Moesch said, “and it shows how many people, with the absence of [the Walshes], were able to step up to the plate and wanted to step up to the plate for their team. And I think it just shows how incredible this team really is and how motivated we've all been from the very beginning.”

UVA junior Claire Curzan won the 100 and 200 backstroke titles in Atlanta and also swam on four championship relay teams.

Winning the NCAA team title last season with the Walshes “was super, super special,” Curzan said, “but they're like almost cheat codes in the sport.”

With the Walsh sisters gone, Curzan said, “there was a lot of discourse [that] Virginia is good, but can they continue to be this dominant? And I think this year, by and above, we've exceeded everyone's expectations, including our own. And the Walshes are awesome. They’re the best duo in NCAA history, potentially even long-course history. And then to be able to think that this team collectively can achieve even more than that, I think it's really, really special. And also, we've worked so hard this year. We knew that there was a target on our back, and to kind of see that dream realized is awesome.”

Moesch agreed. “I think I can speak for all of us when I say it's just the best feeling ever. I think all of us would probably say we outdid ourselves this year. I couldn't be prouder of these girls and this team, and I think it's the best collective team I've ever been on. I'm just so proud of everyone and I'm so happy that we were able to get six for Virginia.”

Curzan said: “The team is like family. We spend so much time together. We live together. Just our entire lives are wrapped up with each other. And just every time I'm able to swim with them in the pool or race against them is the best.”

Wahoos celebrate their sixth straight NCAA women's titleWahoos celebrate their sixth straight NCAA women's title

The UVA men came into this season keenly aware the gap between their program and the women’s was pronounced. At NCAAs, the men had slipped from 10th in 2021-22 to 15th in 2022-23 to 17th in 2023-24 to 32nd in 2024-25.

“Hopefully we’re starting to change that narrative,” said David King, a sophomore who graduated from nearby Western Albemarle High School.

Of the eight Virginia swimmers who qualified for the NCAA meet, only two are seniors: Jack Aikins and Matthew Heilman. Three are first-years, including Maximus Williamson and Thomas Heilman (Matthew’s brother), the headliners in the nation’s top-ranked recruiting class.

“I just think it’ll only get better from here,” said Williamson, who this week was named ACC Co-Swimmer of the Year and ACC Freshman of the Year.

Williamson led the UVA men in Atlanta, where he became only the second swimmer in program history to win two NCAA individual titles. He finished first in the 200 freestyle on March 26 and won the 200 individual medley two nights later.

Not since 2011 had a Cavalier won an individual event title at the NCAA men’s meet.

King played a pivotal role in Williamson’s victory in the 200 free. In prelims that morning, the teammates tied for eighth. Typically a swim-off would have been used to break the tie, but King ceded his spot in the final to Williamson, who went on to win from lane eight.

“I honestly wasn't expecting to be top eight [in prelims],” King said, “and I knew that my best event was still remaining, the 200 back, and so I had an opportunity to be an All-American there. So I didn't really stress about it too much.”

King approached DeSorbo and told him Williamson should swim in the final. “I was like, ‘Look, his best time is 0.7 faster than what I just went, and that was the best time for me, so he's going to ultimately score more points for the team and has a better chance to place higher.’ ”

Williamson recalls his conversation with King. “He was like, ‘Go win it. I believe in you.’ It was really cool.”

King shined in Atlanta, too. He finished third in the 200 backstroke and also swam in four relays. The Cavaliers placed fourth in the 800 free relay, eighth in the 400 medley relay, ninth in the 400 free relay and 10th in the 200 free relay.

For King, highlights of the meet also included a race in which he didn’t compete: the 200 free final.

Williamson’s teammates “were watching on the side, obviously, and on the way back to the wall, he was breathing towards us,” King said, “and we were going crazy. That was probably the most energetic I think we've ever been watching a race at UVA. And so we were just jumping up and down, screaming, slapping our legs, and stuff like that.”

When he saw that Williamson had won, King said, “I didn't even waste any time. I was elbowing people out of the way, sprinting to get behind the blocks and congratulate him. So that was a really special moment.”

King wasn’t alone in his reaction. DeSorbo and Tyler Fenwick, UVA’s senior associate head coach, were “jumping up and down, fist bumping, chest bumping, going crazy,” King said. “I've never really seen them like that before, even given that they are super energetic.”

DeSorbo said: “I celebrated probably harder than I've ever celebrated anything when Maximus won the 200 free.”

Todd DeSorbo and senior associate head coach Tyler FenwickTodd DeSorbo and senior associate head coach Tyler Fenwick

For the Heilman brothers, who like King graduated from Western Albemarle High, the NCAA meet came about a month after their mother, Carrie, a beloved professor in UVA’s McIntire School of Commerce, died of cancer.

DeSorbo would have understood if the brothers had chosen to skip NCAAs, but both were determined to swim for the team.

Thomas Heilman placed second in the 200 butterfly in Atlanta with a program-record time of 1:38.16. He finished fourth in the 100 butterfly and also swam a program record (43.58) in that event.

“I would say that the fact that he did what he did, with everything that happened, is just unbelievable,” DeSorbo said. “You talk about just overcoming adversity. this isn’t just I overcame and I went to the meet and I competed. This is I competed about as well as I might have otherwise.”

Each brother swam a leg on the 400 medley relay team that finished eighth at NCAAs.

“They had to go through so much and nobody would have blamed them if they [had sat out NCAAs],” Williamson said. “They had every right to do so. But the way that they fought, I’m just so proud of them. They just really care about every single person on the team, and that’s how they were raised. They were raised to care about everybody, and they're just great people. And I'm just so thankful to swim with them every day.”

For the UVA men, a top-10 finish isn’t the ultimate goal. They want to win championships, and their performance in Atlanta should be a springboard for greater success.

“Absolutely,” DeSorbo said. “It will do wonders for recruiting, because the top recruits always looked at us and always considered us and always visited us, but there was a little bit of a question about, OK, can they perform? Can they develop? That kind of thing. And so the fact that the guys did so well, it quiets any questions and doubts. And so now those recruits I don't think are just going to consider us. They'll start committing to us. And we're already seeing that. And we've already had guys reaching out to us in the [transfer] portal.”

On the women’s side, there’s no end in sight for UVA’s dynasty. This was the deepest team the Hoos have had, DeSorbo said, and “I think next year's team is going to be even deeper.”

From the group they took to Atlanta, the Cavaliers are losing Emma Weber, Aimee Canny, Carly Novelline, Zoe Skirboll and Bryn Greenwaldt. “But we’ve got an incoming class that’s kind of waiting in the wings to fill those shoes,” DeSorbo said, “and then another year of development for the current team.”

Complacency isn’t a concern at the Aquatic & Fitness Center, where the women’s pursuit of a seventh straight NCAA title will accelerate as the start of the 2026-27 school year approaches.

“Over the years, every senior class has been like, ‘We’re not going to be the senior class that loses the first one,’ ” DeSorbo said, “and the freshmen are like, ‘We don't want to be the first freshman class to lose it.’ So the program's getting pushed from both ends, and it works wonders.”

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