March 16, 2018
| NCAA WOMEN'S SWIMMING & DIVING CHAMPIONSHIPS | | |
| |
|
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Penn State junior Ally McHugh (Philadelphia, Pa.) was less than two-tenths of a second and one place shy of advancing to the consolation finals in the 400 IM Friday at the 2018 NCAA Women's Swimming & Diving Championships hosted by Ohio State in McCorkle Aquatic Pavilion.
McHugh placed 17th in the morning preliminaries in 4:07.52, making her the first alternate for the evening, but without any scratches she did not crack the finals field. She would have needed to surpass 4:07.38 in prelims for the 16th and final qualifying berth.
"She had a good swim this morning, but she needed to beat one more person to make it back," said Penn State head coach Tim Murphy. "I think what she took out of it is that she's got that much more resolve about her swim tomorrow night. She's still excited about the mile, as she should be. Again, she's up against the best ladies in the country, so it will be a hearty task for her, but she's up for it."
McHugh is slated to compete Saturday in the top heat of the mile, starting at 6 p.m. and streamed live on WatchESPN. Her season-best time of 15:43.34 in the event was not only good enough for gold at the Big Ten Championships, it was a Big Ten Championships meet and Penn State school record. Only Stanford sophomore Katie Ledecky (15:03.31) has swam faster this season.
The 400 IM marked the second of three events McHugh is competing in at NCAAs. Thursday, she broke her own record in the women's 500 freestyle, winning the consolation finals to place ninth. Thursday morning, McHugh placed 10th in the preliminaries in 4:37.80, breaking her school record of 4:38.44 set at the Big Ten Championships in the same pool last month. She then continued to drop time in the evening, touching the wall first in the consolation finals in 4:36.17.
