A big session for the University of Virginia is expected on Night Four of the United States National Championships in Irvine, California. The Cavaliers claimed the top seed in all three events that will be contested on Friday night at the William Woollett Aquatics Center, including Isabelle Stadden in the 100-meter backstroke. Stadden has already captured titles in the 50 backstroke and 200 backstroke and will try to complete the sweep, with UVA training partner Claire Curzan her primary opposition.
Kate Douglass (100 breaststroke) and Madi Mintenko (400 freestyle) also earned top seeds during the morning prelims, with Douglass making her meet debut. The Team USA veteran is preparing for the Pan Pacific Championships, which will begin in a little more than a week. Mintenko has already enjoyed a strong meet, thanks to a third-place finish and personal-best time (1:55.87) in the 200 freestyle on Night One – and it only got better.
Here is an event-by-event recap of the Night Three finals:
Women’s 400 Freestyle
Madi Mintenko proved to be a big part of Virginia’s plans after a strong freshman season.
She is hoping to be a big part of Team USA’s plans, too, and took a huge step with her first national championship on Friday.
Mintenko took the lead of the 400 free by the 150 mark and never trailed after that point, getting to the wall in 4:04.54.
She dropped four seconds from her prelims time of 4:08.10, which was already her second-best time. Her previous best was a 4:08.06, set back at the 2023 World Junior Championships. Since then, most of her times were in the 4:12s – until Friday.
It was a strong enough swim to be two seconds ahead of the next in the field.
Texas swimmer Kate Hurst was second in 4:06.45, ahead of Cavan Gormsen (4:07.81) and Brinkleigh Hansen (4:07.92), both besting 4:08.
Sandpipers’ Bella Sims was in another final this week and finished fifth with a swim of 4:08.40, finishing ahead of Marie Landreneau (4:08.88), Gena Jorgenson (4:10.33) and Lilly Nesty (4:10.66).
Women’s 100 Breaststroke
While many eyes were on Virginia swimmer Kate Douglass making her finals debut this week, it was McKenzie Siroky who turned heads.
Siroky was out fast and held the lead from start to finish to win the 100 breaststroke in 1:05.64, holding off Douglass (1:05.66). (More on this race)
Douglass will be competing at the Pan Pacific Championships in a week-and-a-half and put together a solid swim.
Virginia teammate Emma Weber took third in 1:06.92.
Indiana’s Anita Bottazzo finished fourth in 1:07.19, followed by Texas’ Piper Enge (1:07.34), Alto’s Lucy Thomas (1:07.78) and Adalene Robillard (1:08.96), who sandwiched around Maddy Huggins, who finished seventh in 1:08.04.
Women’s 100 Backstroke
Isabelle Stadden made it a clean sweep of the breaststroke events at nationals.
After winning the 50 and 200, the Aqua Jets swimmer training at Virginia led from start to finish to get to the wall in 58.06, three hundredths of a second behind her prelims time.
Wisconsin’s Maggie Wanezek finished second in 58.76, holding off a slew of big names in the field, including a trio of Olympians.
Virginia’s Claire Curzan finished third in 58.83, followed by Wisconsin’s Phoebe Bacon (59.60) and Wolfpack Elite’s Rhyan White (59.74), Kennedy Noble (59.81) and Erika Pelaez (59.97), who finished one spot behind Charlotte Crush (59.91).
