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JUNE 2023 13 three years of current head coach Todd De- Sorbo's six-year tenure on Grounds. "It's funny because our president was at NCAAs, Jim Ryan, the president of the university, and before the [last] relay, he was telling somebody that he and I started at UVA at the same time," DeSorbo said. "He asked me the same thing: Did you think that this was going to happen? And I said, 'The University itself is a place that can at- tract and has always attracted very talented student-athletes in all Olympic sports.' "UVA has been really successful, and I knew that UVA was a place that was potentially capable of doing something like this, but never in my wildest dreams would I have thought in just three years we would win and in three more years, we would have won three in a row. "I do not think that the past six years could be any better; there is no way it could have gone any better for us." DeSorbo's first season with the Cavaliers was the 2017-18 season. That year he guided Virginia to a ninth-place finish at the NCAA Championships with 11 swimmers earning All- America honors. It was the third top-10 finish in four years for UVA. Prior to DeSorbo, UVA had its best fin- ish of fifth overall in both 2015 and 2016 behind Olympian and Cavalier great Leah Smith. Virginia moved up three spots in DeSorbo's second season to finish sixth at the 2019 NCAA Championships. That season saw the emer- gence of Paige Madden. As a second-year, Madden placed second in the 500-yard freestyle and was fifth in the 200-yard freestyle at the NCAA championship meet. All four of UVA's relays that qualified for the championship finished in the top nine, dis- playing the Cavaliers' improvement. DeSorbo and his staff were just getting started. Then came the 2019-20 season. Virginia steadily improved throughout that season and finished its dual meets with a 4-1 record that included wins over Auburn and ACC foe North Carolina State. It was at the ACC Championships that the Cavaliers showed just how much they had to offer. Madden won ACC titles in all three of her individual events, Morgan Hill won one and a first-year named Kate Douglass grabbed two ACC wins. UVA also won four of the relay events for the first time since 2012. That performance cemented Virginia as one of the top contenders for the 2020 NCAA Championships before the COVID-19 pandemic led to its cancellation. That was Year 3. Not getting a chance to prove themselves was a huge motivating factor for UVA heading into the 2020-21 season. It was Madden's team to lead. The fourth-year was poised and ready to put UVA back in position to be the top seed heading into the NCAA Championships once again. The Virginia women cruised through the dual meet season and earned the No. 1 ranking in the CSCAA poll heading into the ACC Championships. The Cavaliers cruised to their second straight league crown with Madden once again leading the way with three individual titles. The Cavaliers secured the top spot head- ing into the 2021 NCAA Championships and were poised and ready to begin the new era for Virginia. The first night of the championships brought the first step toward UVA's goal when the team won its first-ever NCAA relay title, cap- turing the 800-yard freestyle relay. Just a day later, Madden won her first individual NCAA title and the first by a Cav- alier since 2016. The very next event went to a Virginia newcomer named Alex Walsh. She had come in as a first-year and made an impact right away for UVA, much like Douglass the season before. The third individual event of the night brought yet another NCAA title, this time it was Douglass winning her first individual title in the 50-yard freestyle. That night set the tone for the rest of the meet. Madden picked up two more individual wins, tak- ing the 200 free and 1,650 free to sweep her three events. She also became the first swimmer at UVA to win all three individual events at the NCAA Championships. Virginia went on to earn eight top-eight finishes overall and along with the relay NCAA title, finished second in the four other relays to win its first team national crown and become the first ACC program to win a women's swimming and diving NCAA title. "The 2020 meet was canceled and that was really disappointing, because we were seeded first going in," Madden said. "We knew this year we could be back in the same position and we were able to do that. It was exciting that we won, something we've been working for the past two years." Madden had set the stage and a young group of talented UVA swimmers were primed to keep the success going. Not only were Douglass and Walsh returning, but first-team All-Americans Lexi Cuomo, Abby Harter, Ella Nelson and Reilly Tiltmann EXCLUSIVE CLUB Schools that have won at least three consecutive national titles in women's swimming and diving since the NCAA Championships began in 1982: Virginia (2021-23) Stanford (2017-19, 1992-96) Auburn (2002-04) Georgia (1999-2001) Texas (1984-88) The Cavaliers became just the fifth women's swimming and diving program to win at least three consecutive national crowns, joining Stanford, Auburn, Georgia and Texas. (Photo by Matt Riley/courtesy UVA)