In Their Own Lane: Putting UVA’s Fifth Straight Swimming National Title in Perspective

March 24, 2025
Group photo of the UVA women’s swimming and diving team with their trophies at the 2025 NCAA tournament

Members of the UVA women’s swimming and diving team celebrate the Cavaliers’ fifth consecutive NCAA title at the Weyerhaeuser King County Aquatics Center in Federal Way, Washington. (UVA Athletics photo, Illustration by John DiJulio, University Communications)

The thing is, it could be six.

The University of Virginia women’s swimming and diving team won its fifth consecutive NCAA championship over the weekend at the Weyerhaeuser King County Aquatics Center in Federal Way, Washington.

The championship streak, which surpasses the men’s soccer dynasty of the early 1990s as the longest in UVA varsity sports history, began in 2021 in Greensboro, North Carolina, but the Wahoos’ reign near the top of the sport stretches further back.

On March 12, 2020, two weeks after Virginia dominated the Atlantic Coast Conference championship meet and kept a No. 2 national ranking, the NCAA canceled its championship meet due to the spread of COVID-19.

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“That moment was probably the breakthrough,” Virginia head coach Todd DeSorbo said earlier this month. “Going into that (NCAA) meet knowing we were going to have a chance to win and having that excitement, and then having it ripped away from you, out of your control, that was when our team was like, ‘OK, well, that sucked, but we’re going to make sure to win next year.’”

DeSorbo saw that determination shine through a difficult period for his student-athletes.

“There were no pools open, there were no weight rooms open, there was no way to train,” DeSorbo said, reflecting on pandemic-related restrictions. “But I think it really motivated them to do everything they could possibly do through that spring and summer, to set themselves up to come back and be in a better place than anybody in the country.”

Five rings later, the standard remains.

“It’s pretty amazing,” DeSorbo said following Saturday’s victory. “In my opinion, this is the best dynasty in college sports, period.”

Dynasty Numbers

5 UVA’s latest title represents the first “five-peat” of any UVA varsity sports program in school history, surpassing the men’s soccer team’s streak of four consecutive NCAA titles from 1991 to 1994.

2 UVA women’s swimming and diving is the second ACC program to win five straight NCAA titles, joining UNC women’s soccer, which won nine from 1986 to 1994.

3 UVA is the third women’s swimming and diving program in NCAA history to win five consecutive championships, joining Stanford University (1992 to 1996) and the University of Texas (1984 to 1988).

1 Alex Walsh, a member of all five of UVA’s NCAA title teams, is the only swimmer ever to win an individual title in five separate NCAA championship meets.

48 Total number of career individual and relay NCAA championships departing sister duo Alex (23) and Gretchen Walsh (25) have won.

35 UVA now has 35 NCAA championships across all sports.

83 Since 2021, UVA swimmers have set 83 American records.

124.5 UVA’s average margin of victory in its five NCAA championships. UVA was 127 points better than runner-up Stanford in its latest conquest.

Media Contacts

Melissa Dudek

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