By Sophie Kaufman on SwimSwam
What can’t Gretchen Walsh do?
If your answer to that question was “swim breaststroke,” it’s time to reconsider that response. At the Cavalier Invitational, the short-course meters phenom continued her historic season, ripping a 57.34 in the 100-yard breaststroke, demolishing her lifetime best, which previously stood at 59.75 from a January dual meet against Virginia Tech last year.
Walsh has been on fire all season. It began with Virginia’s short-course meters dual against Florida in October, continued to the 2024 Short Course World Championships, and extended to January dual meets–a historically slow point of the NCAA season–where she turned in blazing relay splits and all-time dual meet swims in her individual events.
This 2.41-second drop in the 100 breaststroke vaults her to #14 all-time in the event, slotting in two-hundredths behind Hannah Bach, according to USA Swimming’s data. As for how the swim stacks up in the NCAA this season, she’s now second in the league, behind only her sister Alex Walsh’s 56.98 from the inaugural Eddie Reese Showdown.
Walsh was out in 27.27 during her prelims swim, then split 30.07 on the second 50. She qualified first for the final, ahead of A. Walsh, Aimee Canny, and Emma Weber, her teammates who are much more well-known for their breaststroke abilities.
Walsh has worked on her breaststroke this season, and has figured out how to translate her underwater speed to the breaststroke pullout. She showed off her gains during her 100 IM world record onslaught at the 2024 Short Course World Championships. She split 17.06 and 17.00 on the breaststroke leg of her prelim and semifinal 100 IMs in Budapest—the splits were rock solid for her, but were the one place her competitors were out-splitting her. Then, she put it all together in the final, splitting a field-best 16.06 breaststroke split as she tore to another world record for gold (55.11).
This swim is another example of Walsh’s dominance in the short-course pool. It gives her an eighth official NCAA event where she ranks in the all-time top 20. That statistic extends to ten events when factoring in non-NCAA Championship events like the 50 backstroke, where she’s the fastest swimmer in history, and the 100 IM, where she ranks second behind Kate Douglass.
Events Where Gretchen Walsh Ranks In All-Time Top 20 (SCY):
- 50 freestyle: 20.37 (#1)
- 100 freestyle: 44.83 (#1)
- 200 freestyle: 1:40.23 (#5)
- 50 backstroke: 22.10 (#1)
- 100 backstroke: 48.10 (#1)
- 200 backstroke: 1:48.18 (#9)
- 100 breaststroke: 57.34 (#14)
- 100 butterfly: 47.35 (#1)
- 100 IM: 52.09 (#2)
- 200 IM: 1:52.34 (#17)
* Data courtesy of USA Swimming, no converted times
Walsh added the 200 backstroke to this list earlier this season, swimming a 1:48.18 at the Tennessee Invitational. She took on the 200 IM at last year’s Cavalier Invitational and the 200 freestyle at the 2024 ACC Championships. Walsh has pushed her primary sprint events and relay splits beyond what was thought possible. But in addition to that, she’s taken opportunities to showcase her versatility and break out of any “specialization box” which has further cemented her status as one of the greatest short-course swimmers in history.
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