July 28, 2018
IRVINE, Calif. - Penn State rising-senior Ally McHugh (Philadelphia, Pa.) is set to round out the 2018 USA Swimming Phillips 66 Nationals in her signature event, the women's 1500-meter freestyle, Sunday at 9 p.m. ET at the William Woollett Aquatics Center in Irvine, California.
The meet will be televised live on the Olympic Channel and streamed live on NBCsports.com and the NBC Sports app.
McHugh will be competing for the fourth time in five days and for the second time after stunning many by winning gold in the women's 400m individual medley with a dramatic finish Friday evening. She swam the 400m free prelims Saturday and placed 14th in a personal-best 4:11.32, but elected not to swim in the B-final, and she placed fourth in the 800m free Thursday evening.
McHugh is the reigning NCAA silver medalist in the equivalent 1650-yard freestyle 15:36.27, as she placed second to gold medalist Katie Ledecky at the 2018 NCAA Championships in March. McHugh's March performance made her the highest finishing Nittany Lion in program history.
Penn State will also be represented Sunday earlier in the day in the men's 800m free by Robbie Dickson (Greenwich, N.J.). Dickson last competed Wednesday, placing 29th in the 1500m free in 15:35.63, a personal best time.
Joining McHugh in the pool Saturday was Maddie Hart (Bryn Mawr, Pa.). Hart swam the 100m back in 1:03.49 to complete her championships. Earlier in the meet, she swam the in the prelims of the 100 butterfly (1:01.26), 50m back (30.25) and 50m fly (28.08).
McHugh is looking to create more history. Friday in the 400m IM, McHugh overcame a nearly half-second deficit after the final turn, passing both Brooke Forde (Stanford) and Olympic medalist and defending national champion Leah Smith over the final 50 meters to touch the wall first in a personal-best 4:34.80. She became Penn State's first women's swimming U.S. National Champion.
McHugh's time ranks her third in the world year-to-date and was 3.68 seconds shy of the American record of 4:31.12. She shaved nearly five seconds off her prelims time of 4:39.67, which was also a personal best.
McHugh has enjoyed a meteoric rise over the past two years rising from an NCAA Championships participant as a sophomore in 2017 to a U.S. National Team member by the end of the summer of 2017. She then medaled twice at the 2018 Big Ten Championships and won silver in the 1650-yard freestyle at the 2018 NCAA Championships leading up to this year's national championships.
By virtue of her 400 IM gold, McHugh is already set to make her first trip to Japan, as she will be a member of the U.S. national team at the 2018 Pan Pacific Championships in Tokyo August 9-14.
The Phillips 66 Nationals serve as the selection event for the USA National Teams competing at the 2018 Pan Pacific Championships, 2019 World Championships, 2019 World University Games, 2019 Pan American Championships and 2018 Jr. Pan Pacific Championships. The meet does not count towards 2020 Olympic Trials qualifying.
Consult USASwimming.org for a day-by-day broadcast schedule.
Check GoPSUSports.com for coverage of the Penn State swimming and diving teams. Follow the team on Twitter at @PennStateSWIM and on Facebook at http://facebook.com/pennstateswimminganddiving.