July 29, 2018
W 1500M Free Results | M 800 Free Results
IRVINE, Calif. - Penn State rising-senior Ally McHugh (Philadelphia, Pa.) won her second medal of the 2018 USA Swimming Phillips 66 Nationals Sunday evening, claiming silver in the women's 1500-meter freestyle at the William Woollett Aquatics Center in Irvine, California.
McHugh dropped 13 seconds off her previous personal best, finishing the race in 16 minutes, 2.56 seconds to now rank ninth in the world. She trailed only Ashley Twichell (15:55.68), the reigning Open Water 10K national champion, and out-touched incoming University of Southern California freshman Erica Sullivan (16:02.88).
"Ashley got away from her, and Ashley is very experienced and tough, so she couldn't quite reel her in, but she still finished second," said Penn State head coach Tim Murphy.
"It was a great weekend for all of our swimmers here. All three swam personal best times in all of their events. Robbie [Dickson] set the tone for the weekend with a great opening swim, it was a great learning experience for Maddie [Hart] and of course Ally won two medals. I'm proud of my swimmers, proud of our team and proud of our coaches."
Robbie Dickson (Greenwich, N.J.) also competed Sunday in the men's 800 freestyle, swimming a personal best time of 8:15.06.
For McHugh it was her second medal of the weekend, as she claimed the national title in the 400m IM Friday.
McHugh is now 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.
Strong finishes were key in both of McHugh's medal-winning performances. McHugh was fourth in the 1500m Sunday through the first 1350 meters, but closed the gap on third and moved into second by swimming the fastest laps in the pool on each of the final six laps in the 50-meter pool.
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, becoming 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 also placed fourth in the 800m free Thursday evening, completing it in a personal-best 8:24.22, which also ranks her in the Top 10 in the world. She was the fastest in the pool over the final 200 meters of the race, coming up less than a tenth-of-a-second shy of bronze, as she set a personal best in the 800m by nearly six seconds.
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.
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