Madden, Walsh, DeSorbo take top VaSID Women’s Swimming & Diving honors

Courtesy UVA Media Relations

Senior Paige Madden, freshman Alex Walsh and head coach Todd DeSorbo take top Women’s Swimming & Diving honors from the Virginia Sports Information Directors.

Madden (Mobile, Ala.) was named Swimmer of the Year, Walsh (Nashville, Tenn.) earned Rookie Swimmer of the Year and DeSorbo was selected as Coach of the Year. Virginia also had 16 first team honors.

Madden was named a Honda Sports Award finalist after leading Virginia to its first-ever NCAA Championship title in 2021. She captured three individual races and one relay title, the most of any swimmer at the meet, and earned five All-America honors. Madden also took three individual titles and two relay titles in UVA’s ACC Championship. She was named the 2021 Weaver-James-Corrigan ACC Postgraduate Scholarship Award recipient and ACC Scholar-Athlete of the Year.

Walsh won a NCAA title in the 200-yard individual medley and was part of UVA’s first NCAA relay title in her first appearance in the NCAA Championships. She finished with six All-America honors to help Virginia win its first NCAA Championship. Walsh anchored UVA’s American Record-setting 200 medley relay and won five ACC titles (one individual, 4 relay) at the 2021 ACC Championships.

DeSorbo guided the women’s team to its first national championship and the first national title for an ACC team in the sport in NCAA history. Virginia won six national titles in individual and relay events at the NCAA Championships, the most ever by an ACC program. The Cavaliers had 12 athletes named to CSCAA All-America Teams (10 first team and two second team). Virginia also won its third women’s ACC Championship in four years, and league-record 17th overall.

Along with Walsh and Madden, Lexi Cuomo (sprint free), Kate Douglass (sprint free), Maddie Donohoe (distance free), Reilly Tiltmann (backstroke), Alexis Wenger (breaststroke), Abby Harter (butterfly), Jessica Nava (butterfly), Ella Nelson (IM) and Jocelyn Porter (diving) all earned VaSID First Team honors. UVA also swept the first team honors for all five relays.