Virginia and Stanford each win a relay event at the NCAA women's swimming and diving championships

FEDERAL WAY, Wash. (AP) — Defending champion Virginia won the first relay event at the women’s swimming and diving championships on Wednesday night to begin its quest for a fifth straight NCAA title.

Virginia's Claire Curzan, Alex Walsh, Gretchen Walsh and Maxine Parker opened the meet by capturing the 200-yard medley relay with a new NCAA, American and US Open record time of 1-minute, 31.10-seconds — breaking the Cavaliers' record of a 1:31.51 set in the 2023 championships. Gretchen Walsh had a 20.88 split in the fly leg, which is the second fastest of all time.

Caroline Bricker, Aurora Roghair, Lillie Nordmann and Kayla Wilson beat the field by nearly five seconds to become national champions in the 800-yard freestyle relay with a time of 6:46.98. Second-place Virginia finished at 6:51.29.

That pushed Stanford into a first-place tie with Virginia with 74 points apiece. Florida is third at 60.

Virginia is attempting to become the third school to win five consecutive NCAA team titles in women’s swimming and diving. Stanford (1992-96) and Texas (1984-88) are the only schools to win five straight.

There are four swimming finals and a diving final on Thursday at the Weyerhaeuser King County Aquatics Center.

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