NCAA Women’s Championships: Anna Moesch Pulls Off Anchor-Leg Comeback to Give Virginia 800 Free Relay Title
Through the first 750 yards of the 800 freestyle relay, the University of Virginia never led. Instead, a trio of teams exchanged the advantage through their own sizzling splits until Anna Moesch took over. The Virginia sophomore has turned herself into one of the best swimmers in the country this season, becoming the third-fastest woman ever in the 100 and 200-yard free at last month’s ACC Championships.
Now, Moesch has brought her skills to the national level and delivered in dramatic fashion. She entered the water in fifth place but quickly motored through the field. Still seven hundredths behind entering the final 50 yards, Moesch quickly blasted into the lead as she notched the fastest relay split ever recorded. Moesch covered her eight lengths in 1:39.03, 0.11 quicker than the previous top mark posted by Mallory Comerford at the 2018 NCAA meet. More importantly, Moesch delivered her team a win by 1.70 seconds.
“I tried to think about it as little as I possibly could,” Moesch said. “I love to race, and I knew it was going to be a really hard race. It was such a fast field. Toward the end, I just had to put my head down and keep going. I just knew I really wanted to win it for my team. I knew how hard we worked and how bad we wanted it. I just kept remembering them and tried as hard as I could to get to the wall.”
Virginia finished in 6:45.21, lowering the NCAA meet record of 6:45.91 set by a 2017 Stanford team that featured Olympic champions Katie Ledecky and Simone Manuel. This roster included Aimee Canny on the leadoff leg and freshman Madi Mintenko going second, and both did their jobs with 1:41 splits. Bailey Hartman, making an appearance on this roster for the first time, held her own on the third leg to give Moesch a shot on the comeback leg.
“It’s a special night for us. One of our biggest goals going into the meet was having those two relays to start us off,” Moesch said, referring to this victory after Virginia previously won the 200 medley relay. “We were all super nervous. We all felt nervous for the 200 medley, even though we weren’t even in it, and then we were all nervous for the 800 free. I think all that adrenaline helped us a lot. It makes us super excited going into the next few days, and I think it’s good momentum for us.”
This relay posted the second-fastest time in history. The only quicker performance came at last year’s ACC Championships, when a Virginia team clocked 6:44.13. Canny is the only swimmer returning from that relay; sisters Gretchen and Alex Walsh have both graduated while Curzan rarely competes on this relay as she focuses on sprints and backstroke.
Forty points in this relay after 40 in the 200 medley relay put Virginia into the lead after the first day of competition, the Cavaliers’ 100 points giving them an edge on Texas (89) with Stanford and Louisville well back in a tie for third (59).
On the leadoff leg, Indiana freshman Liberty Clark pulled off a stunner as she became the fifth woman in history to break the 1:40 barrier. Clark continued her stellar freshman season with a time of 1:39.70, making her the third-fastest swimmer in history. Clark had previously been the third-fastest swimmer in the country this season with the 1:40.84 she swam at the Big Ten Championships, but this performance vaulted her into title contention for Thursday’s individual event. She is now two hundredths ahead of Moesch’s top mark of 1:39.72.
Indiana continued to lead through the halfway point as Alex Shackell supplied a 1:41 split, but Michigan took over the lead on the third leg behind a 1:40.91 split from Stephanie Balduccini.
Five teams were in the mix entering the anchor leg, but moments later, Texas took command with one of the best 200-meter swimmers in the country, Erin Gemmell. But that lead would not last as Moesch poured it on over the final 100 yards. She blasted by Gemmell to win by more than a second.
Texas ended up second in 6:46.91. Gemmell had a 1:41.63 split coming home, but the top performance came from Nikolett Padar up front with a 1:40.30 performance. That made Padar the sixth-fastest swimmer ever in the event. Lillie Nesty and Campbell Chase swam the middle legs.
Third place went to California in 6:47.68. Claire Weinstein, the World Championships silver medalist in the 200-meter free, swam the second leg for Cal in 1:41.44, hardly a poor performance considering she had thrown down a huge best time for second place in the 1650 free earlier in the session. Mia West, Teagan O’Dell and Ella Cosgrove also competed for Cal.
Michigan ended up fourth in 6:48.04. Bella Sims fell to third on the opening leg, but she still put up a solid time of 1:40.93. Indiana ended up fifth in 6:48.85 while Stanford, with Torri Huske splitting 1:41.41 on the second leg, came in sixth (6:50.12). Seventh-place USC got a big anchor leg from Minna Abraham, with her 1:40.25 reminding her rivals that she will also threaten in the individual 200 free.
Event 3 Women 800 Yard Freestyle Relay
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NCAA: N 6:44.13 2/18/2025 Virginia
G Walsh, A Walsh, A Canny, C Curzan
Meet: M 6:45.21 3/18/2026 Virginia
A Canny, M Mintenko, B Hartman, A Moesch
American: A 6:45.91 3/15/2017 Stanford
S Manuel, L Neal, E Eastin, K Ledecky
US Open: O 6:44.13 2/18/2025 Virginia
G Walsh, A Walsh, A Canny, C Curzan
Pool: P 6:45.21 3/18/2026 Virginia
A Canny, M Mintenko, B Hartman, A Moesch
School Seed Finals Points
==================================================================================
1 Virginia 6:45.34 6:45.21M 40
1) Canny, Aimee SR 2) r:0.25 Mintenko, Madi FR
3) r:0.43 Hartman, Bailey SO 4) r:0.22 Moesch, Anna SO
r:+0.71 23.52 48.97 (48.97)
1:15.15 (1:15.15) 1:41.68 (1:41.68)
2:04.47 (22.79) 2:30.13 (48.45)
2:56.70 (1:15.02) 3:23.11 (1:41.43)
3:46.51 (23.40) 4:12.51 (49.40)
4:39.14 (1:16.03) 5:06.18 (1:43.07)
5:29.10 (22.92) 5:54.75 (48.57)
6:20.17 (1:13.99) 6:45.21 (1:39.03)
2 Texas 6:50.36 6:46.91 34
1) Padar, Nikolett FR 2) r:-0.02 Nesty, Lillian SO
3) r:0.14 Chase, Campbell SO 4) r:0.20 Gemmell, Erin JR
r:+0.70 23.31 48.38 (48.38)
1:14.15 (1:14.15) 1:40.30 (1:40.30)
2:03.34 (23.04) 2:28.94 (48.64)
2:55.41 (1:15.11) 3:22.25 (1:41.95)
3:45.44 (23.19) 4:11.60 (49.35)
4:38.29 (1:16.04) 5:05.28 (1:43.03)
5:28.09 (22.81) 5:53.65 (48.37)
6:20.10 (1:14.82) 6:46.91 (1:41.63)
3 California 6:50.15 6:47.68 32
1) West, Mia SO 2) r:0.40 Weinstein, Claire FR
3) r:0.22 O'Dell, Teagan FR 4) r:0.30 Cosgrove, Ella FR
r:+0.68 23.61 49.29 (49.29)
1:15.52 (1:15.52) 1:42.31 (1:42.31)
2:05.86 (23.55) 2:31.51 (49.20)
2:57.82 (1:15.51) 3:23.75 (1:41.44)
3:46.75 (23.00) 4:12.66 (48.91)
4:38.63 (1:14.88) 5:05.02 (1:41.27)
5:28.59 (23.57) 5:54.49 (49.47)
6:20.73 (1:15.71) 6:47.68 (1:42.66)
4 Michigan 6:48.02 6:48.04 30
1) Sims, Bella JR 2) r:0.31 Bellard, Hannah JR
3) r:0.10 Balduccini, Steanie JR 4) r:0.17 Liang, Chistey SR
r:+0.53 23.53 48.77 (48.77)
1:14.72 (1:14.72) 1:40.93 (1:40.93)
2:04.63 (23.70) 2:30.41 (49.48)
2:56.98 (1:16.05) 3:23.73 (1:42.80)
3:46.75 (23.02) 4:12.20 (48.47)
4:38.21 (1:14.48) 5:04.64 (1:40.91)
5:28.12 (23.48) 5:54.25 (49.61)
6:21.02 (1:16.38) 6:48.04 (1:43.40)
5 Indiana 6:51.11 6:48.85 28
1) Clark, Liberty FR 2) r:0.14 Shackell, Alex FR
3) r:0.02 Hodges, Mackenzie JR 4) r:0.25 Hoeper, Grace FR
r:+0.59 23.26 48.74 (48.74)
1:14.09 (1:14.09) 1:39.70 (1:39.70)
2:02.82 (23.12) 2:28.48 (48.78)
2:54.41 (1:14.71) 3:21.17 (1:41.47)
3:45.36 (24.19) 4:12.33 (51.16)
4:39.00 (1:17.83) 5:05.76 (1:44.59)
5:29.08 (23.32) 5:55.11 (49.35)
6:21.89 (1:16.13) 6:48.85 (1:43.09)
6 Stanford 6:51.07 6:50.12 26
1) Bricker, Caroline JR 2) r:0.30 Huske, Torri SR
3) r:0.25 Bell, Lucy SR 4) r:0.19 Wilson, Kayla SR
r:+0.62 23.97 49.66 (49.66)
1:15.88 (1:15.88) 1:42.53 (1:42.53)
2:04.89 (22.36) 2:30.16 (47.63)
2:56.71 (1:14.18) 3:23.94 (1:41.41)
3:47.48 (23.54) 4:13.16 (49.22)
4:39.50 (1:15.56) 5:06.37 (1:42.43)
5:30.17 (23.80) 5:56.33 (49.96)
6:22.92 (1:16.55) 6:50.12 (1:43.75)
7 USC 6:53.17 6:51.17 24
1) Maier, Nicole 5Y 2) r:0.19 Kozan, Justina SR
3) r:0.38 Tuggle, Claire SR 4) r:0.06 Abraham, Minna JR
r:+0.67 24.26 50.45 (50.45)
1:16.83 (1:16.83) 1:43.29 (1:43.29)
2:06.90 (23.61) 2:33.35 (50.06)
3:00.65 (1:17.36) 3:27.93 (1:44.64)
3:51.90 (23.97) 4:17.72 (49.79)
4:44.23 (1:16.30) 5:10.92 (1:42.99)
5:33.51 (22.59) 5:58.67 (47.75)
6:24.66 (1:13.74) 6:51.17 (1:40.25)
8 Tennessee 6:54.56 6:53.78 22
1) Jansen, Ella SO 2) r:0.34 Armen, Emily SO
3) r:0.39 Mason, Amelia FR 4) r:0.21 Brown, Emily SO
r:+0.75 24.01 49.64 (49.64)
1:15.49 (1:15.49) 1:41.73 (1:41.73)
2:04.96 (23.23) 2:30.99 (49.26)
2:58.34 (1:16.61) 3:25.86 (1:44.13)
3:49.53 (23.67) 4:15.87 (50.01)
4:43.43 (1:17.57) 5:10.47 (1:44.61)
5:34.07 (23.60) 6:00.16 (49.69)
6:26.94 (1:16.47) 6:53.78 (1:43.31)
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