Aug. 12, 2018
400m Free Prelims Results| B-Final Results
400m IM Prelims Results| B-Final Results
1500m Free Results
TOKYO - Penn State senior Ally McHugh (Philadelphia, Pa.) concluded the 2018 Pan Pacific Swimming Championships with her third top-10 finish of the weekend Sunday in the Tokyo Tatsumi International Swimming Center.
McHugh contributed to a dominant effort by Team USA, as the Americans won the team title with 447.5 points, followed by Australia with 331.5 points and Japan with 318 points.
McHugh competed on three of the four days, finishing the meet with the 1500-meter freestyle, in which she placed 10th in 16:17.29.
McHugh also competed in the 400m IM and 400m free and qualified for the championship finals in both based on time, but as only the third-fastest American in both events, she was relegated to the B-final in both due to meet rules limiting qualifiers per country to two.
In the 400m free Saturday, McHugh shaved nearly three seconds off her previous best time to rank fourth overall in 4:08.72, but fellow Americans Katie Ledecky (4:02.57) and Leah Smith (4:04.91) placed first and second, bouncing McHugh to the B-final. McHugh placed second in the B-final in 4:09.08.
Thursday, McHugh faced a similar situation the 400m IM. She had the time to advance to the A-final in the preliminaries, touching in sixth overall, but was third amongst fellow Americans in 4:41.08. With just 10 entrants overall in the event, McHugh was one of just two swimmers in the secondary race, but she faithfully completed it in 4:41.04 with her Team USA teammates cheering her on. The margin of victory was more than 46 seconds.
With no Olympics or FINA World Championships this year, "Pan Pacs" were the year's top competition for Argentina, Australia, the Bahamas, Brazil, Canada, China, Cook Islands, Colombia, Ecuador, Guam, Northern Marlana Islands, New Zealand, Oman, Palau, Peru, the Philippines, Thailand and the United States.
Next up for McHugh is her senior Penn State swimming season. She will serve as a team captain.
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