FEDERAL WAY — Virginia’s Gretchen Walsh and Claire Curzan set NCAA records on their way to individual titles, helping the Cavaliers cruise to their record-tying fifth straight women’s swimming and diving championship on Saturday night.
Curzan set a new mark in the 200-yard backstroke with a time of 1 minute, 46.82 seconds. Walsh broke her own record in the 100 freestyle with a time of 44.71 seconds. Curzan is the first swimmer to win individual NCAA titles for two different schools after winning the 200 backstroke while at Stanford in 2023.
The Cavaliers finished with 544 points, easily outdistancing runner-up Stanford with 417.
Virginia joins Texas (1984-88) and Stanford (1992-96) as the only schools to win five championships in a row.
Five different Cavaliers won gold medals led by the six from Walsh and four from Curzan.
Walsh also set an NCAA and American record at the event in the 100 butterfly with a time of 46.97 and the 100 freestyle (44.71). Walsh and Curzan were also members of Virginia’s 200 medley relay team that won in a record time of 1:31.1.
Other winners on Saturday included Texas’ Jillian Cox with a winning time of 15:33.54 in the 1,650-yard freestyle. Stanford’s Lucy Bell won the 200 breaststroke in 2:04.28. Indiana’s Skyler Liu was the top platform diver with 382.15 points. Virginia won the 400 freestyle relay in 3:06.01.
Emma Sticklen of Texas set an NCAA record in the 200 butterfly with a time of 1:49.11.
The four-day event was held at the Weyerhaeuser King County Aquatics Center.
SOFTBALL
• Washington swept its doubleheader in run-rule fashion against Rutgers at Husky Softball Stadium.
The Huskies took Game 1 9-0 (five innings) and followed with a 12-0 (five innings) decision in Game 2.
The Huskies improved to 23-9 on the season and 3-2 in Big Ten action.
Alycia Flores led the team, going 5 for 6 with a double, home run and five RBI over the two games.
Tia Durst (3 for 5) added four RBI and Alexis DeBoer (3 for 4) drove in three runs.
• Seattle U swept a doubleheader with visiting Creighton 6-5 and 8-0 in five innings for its 10th straight win. Taylor Fitch and Bella Ely homered, and Nicola Simpson tripled and pitched a four-hit shutout in Game 2.
BASEBALL
• The Washington offense managed just four hits in a 2-1 loss to visiting Maryland.
Jackson Thomas (five innings) and Isaac Yeager (four innings) combined to allow just two runs on six hits in the loss.
Colton Bower plated AJ Guerrero with a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the fourth for the Huskies’ (10-14, 3-2 Big Ten) lone run.
• Logan Johnstone hit a game-ending home run, his second homer of the game, in the bottom of the eighth inning as Washington State run-ruled visiting San Diego State 13-3 for the second straight game.
Max Hartman and Luke Thiele both homered and drove in two runs, and Gavin Roy went 2 for 4 with three RBI for the Cougars (8-14, 3-2 MWC).
• Jared Stevenson and Tyler Peterson drove in three runs each, and Kenny Ishikawa had four hits as host Seattle U beat Utah Valley 14-10.
Earlier in the day, the teams completed a game that was suspended Friday night, with Utah Valley beating the Redhawks (9-13, 1-1 WAC) 14-4 in seven innings.
GYMNASTICS
• The Washington women finished in 10th place overall with a score of 196.125 at the Big Ten Championships in Ann Arbor, Mich.
UCLA was the overall winner at 198.450, followed by Michigan State (198.150) and Minnesota (197.425).
Washington’s Emily Innes was named to the All-Championships team.
TENNIS
• The 20th-ranked Washington women beat host Northwestern 4-1. Erika Matsuda, Alexia Jacobs and Carina Syrtveit earned singles wins for the Huskies (11-2, 4-1 Big Ten).
• The Washington men (10-5, 2-3 Big Ten) beat host Oregon 4-1.
HOCKEY
• Everett beat the host Wenatchee Wild 3-2 in overtime in the final regular-season game for the Silvertips.
Everett (48-12-4-4) will open a seven-game WHL playoff series against Seattle at home on Friday.
• The Thunderbirds beat visiting Portland 5-4 in their second-to-last game of the regular season. Seattle (29-33-4-1) travels to Tri-City on Sunday.
RUGBY
• The Seattle Seawolves (1-4) made a strong second-half push, but fell to visiting Utah 30-27.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
