14-Year-Old Gretchen Walsh Uncorks 21.01 50 Free Relay Split

14-Year-Old Gretchen Walsh Uncorks 21.01 50 Free Relay Split

14-year-old swimmer Gretchen Walsh of Nashville Aquatic Club swam a 21.01 50-yard freestyle split at the 2017 USA Swimming Junior Nationals.

Dec 7, 2017 by Maclin Simpson
14-Year-Old Gretchen Walsh Uncorks 21.01 50 Free Relay Split

WOAH.

We knew Nashville Aquatic Club's Gretchen Walsh was good -- after all, she was the youngest qualifier at the 2016 U.S. Olympic Trials -- but we didn't realize she was this good.

On Wednesday night at the 2017 USA Swimming Speedo Junior National Championships (East) in Knoxville, TN, 14-year-old Walsh unloaded a mind-boggling 21.01 anchor leg on NAC's second-place 200-yard medley relay.

The scariest part about this is that she had some room for improvement. Watching the race live (archived video not yet available, but we will post when it is), we noticed Walsh actually glided into the turn a little bit. If she can tighten up those minor details, we could certainly see a *gasp* 20-point split in their 200-yard freestyle relay.

Even with a swim like that, NAC still could not overcome Cardinal Aquatics who broke the Junior National meet record with a time of 1:38.48. The previous record was 1:38.85 set in 2016 by Fort Collins Area Swim Team.

Check out these splits:

Women 200 Medley Relay

  1. Cardinal Aquatics (A) -- 1:38.48 (Championship Record)

    1. Krista Wheeler -- (24.88)
    2. Kaylee Wheeler -- (27.75)
    3. Kelly Tichenor -- (23.74)
    4. Gabriela Albiero -- (22.11)
  2. Nashville Aquatic Club (A) -- 1:38.74

    1. Alex Walsh -- (24.17)
    2. Allie Raab -- (27.81)
    3. Julia Eskew -- (25.75)
    4. Gretchen Walsh -- (21.01)
  3. SwimMAC Carolina (A) -- 1:39.72

    1. Julie Menkhaus -- (25.05)
    2. Lillian Higgs -- (28.07)
    3. Sophie Lindner -- (23.96)
    4. Olwyn Bartis -- (22.64)

By comparison, here are the top five splits in the 200 free relay from the 2017 NCAA DI Women's Championships:

  1. Farida Osman (Cal) -- 20.91
  2. Liz Li (Ohio State) -- 21.02
  3. Mallory Comerford (Louisville) -- 21.21
  4. Chantal Van Landeghem (Georgia) -- 21.24
  5. Amy Bilquist (Cal) -- 21.26

As you can see, she's in pretty good company...

Of note, the fastest women's 50-yard freestyle relay split of all time is 20.80 by former Auburn swimmer Arianna Vanderpool-Wallace.