The 2024 NCAA Championships were a great surprise to lots of people. The Arizona State men's team won their first NCAA Title ever. This accomplishment really is amazing after the swim and dive team was cut from the athletics program in 2008. And, like always, the Virginia women won their 4th consecutive NCAA Title.
Let's start with the women's championship which lasted from March 20-23. The main star of the meet was of course Gretchen Walsh. She broke the NCAA record in every individual event she swam (mostly rebreaking her own records). Here are some of her results: 50 freestyle: lowered NCAA record from 20.79 seconds to 20.37. 100 freestyle: lowered NCAA record from 45.56 to
44.83. 100 backstroke: lowered NCAA record from 48.26 to 48.10. 100 butterfly:
lowered NCAA record from 48.46 to 47.42. While breaking all of her records, she helped Virginia secure their 4th consecutive NCAA Title.
It wasn't just the women that shattered lots of records. The men had lots of records broken that no one thought were going to go down. Leon Marchand and Josh Liendo were undoubtedly the stars of the show. Both went 3/3 in individual events. While Liendo did not break any records he swam some very fast times. Marchand on the other hand, broke 2/3 of the records in events that he swam. Those events were the 200 breaststroke and 500 freestyle. One of the craziest parts of the meet was on the opening night when Luke Hobson (Texas) broke the 200 Freestyle record on a relay. That record probably lasted no more than 5 minutes when Leon Marchand took it back. Then on the third night of the championships Luke Hobson broke the record once again proving that he is the fastest 200 freestyler in college swimming.
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