While adjusting to the rigors of her second year as a UVA Engineering student and first year in the chemical engineering program, Alexa “Lexi” Cuomo of Clifton, Virginia, also became an NCAA national champion as a member of the University of Virginia women's swim and dive team.
The Cavaliers ran away with the 2021 national title with 491 points, followed by N.C. State in second with 354 points and the University of Texas with 344.5. Virginia is the first Atlantic Coast Conference team to become NCAA women's swimming and diving national champions.
Cuomo collected four silver medals at the NCAA competition to help the Hoos to overall victory, with second-place finishes in the 200- and 400-yard freestyle relays and the 200- and 400-yard medley relays. She also placed in the top eight in the 100-yard butterfly to earn First Team All-America honors in the event.
Following the NCAA win, head coach Todd DeSorbo told UVA Today the 2021 team was on a mission all year, a sentiment echoed by Cuomo.
“I'm so proud of how much our swim and dive team has accomplished, especially in this past year,” Cuomo said. “This win felt like a celebration of the effort we put in every day and the love and support we have for each other.”
The Virginia women also won the ACC swimming and diving championship for the second year in a row.
In the 2021 ACC championships, Cuomo and her teammates won the title in all four relay events, and in doing so, set an American record in the 200-yard medley with a time of 1:32.93. Individually, Cuomo won silver medals in the 100-yard butterfly and 50-yard freestyle in the ACC finals.
In her UVA swimming career, Cuomo has also earned All-ACC honors and has been named to the All-ACC Academic Team and ACC Honor Roll. She has recorded some of UVA's fastest times in the 100-yard butterfly, 50-yard freestyle and 100-yard freestyle.
Cuomo comes from a family of engineers, with her mother and father in chemical and mechanical engineering respectively. Two sisters are civil engineers, one of whom is a UVA alumna. She gravitated to chemical engineering because there are many paths you can take with the degree.
“I wanted a major that will help me become a problem-solver for the big challenges in our world today, especially climate change,” Cuomo said. “It has definitely been a challenge, but having a smaller community in our department makes me feel like I'm part of a team during the hard classes as well.”
Teamwork and good time management are getting her through her toughest semester yet, she said, but motivation isn't hard to come by.
“What keeps me going is probably the fact that I want to make a positive impact after college in a way that feels important to me, and I never want to intentionally limit myself based on the fear that I can't do something, either academically or athletically.”
Buoyed by such a memorable and successful swimming season, Cuomo now is looking forward to the summer, when she plans to join assistant professor Rachel Letteri's biomaterials lab for undergraduate research. She will work with Ph.D. student Mara Kuenen.
There is one more thing on her swimming to-do list, though.
“I am planning on swimming in the U.S. Olympic Trials in June. I've qualified for the 100 fly and 50 free,” Cuomo said.
400-yard medley relay team members Kate Douglass (clockwise from top left), Cuomo, Alexis Wenger and Reilly Tiltmann on the podium after their second-place finish in the NCAA championship finals.In the 2021 ACC championships, Lexi Cuomo and her teammates won the 200-yard medley relay in an American record time of 1:32.93. From left are Kate Douglass, Cuomo, Alexis Wenger and Caroline Gmelich.
The Virginia women's swim and dive team won the 2021 ACC and NCAA championships.