KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Senior Ally McHugh led the Penn State women's swimming & diving team with a first-place, NCAA A-cut finish in the 1650 freestyle on the final day of competition at the Tennessee Invitational hosted by the University of Tennessee Saturday in the Jones Aquatic Center. Penn State had a total of three swimmers in the A-finals with three top eight finishers in the 1650 free and two with NCAA B-cut times.
The Nittany Lions finished the tournament in third place with 557 points, trailing No 10. Tennessee (1227) and No. 25 Duke (632). Denver (537), Penn (288) and Carson-Newman (128) follow Penn State.
With a first-place finish in the 500 free and a second-place spot in the 400 IM, senior captain Ally McHugh snagged another first-place finish in the 1650 free. Swimming the race with an NCAA A-cut time of 15:41.36, McHugh secured her ticket to the NCAA's. McHugh's performance is just a hundredth off the best time this year in the event.
Camryn Barry and Madison Murtagh also came in with top-10 performances in the 1650 free finishing in fourth (16:37.04) and seventh (16:45.76), respectively. Stephanie Szekely rounded out the top-10 finishes for the Nittany Lions coming in 10th with a time of 16:51.07. Szekely also posted a 2:00.03 in the 200 back for an eighth-place finish.
Following her fifth-place performance in the 100 back that pushed her into the 10th place slot on the Penn State women's all-time top times chart, Maddie Hart came out strong claiming second in the 200 butterfly. Hart swam an NCAA B-cut time of 1:58.10.
Carly Hart and Aleksandra Tulacz swam for seventh (2:16.54) and eighth (2:16.76) place finishes in the 200 breststroke A-final.
Nittany Lions Olivia Jack, Madison Ledwith, Katrina Kuhn and Elizabeth Gaspari placed the women in fifth in the 400 free relay with a time of 3:22.73.
"This was one of the best performances we've had in our time here," said Assistant Coach Matt Hurst, "The team embraced the opportunity to compete, the opportunity to have fun, and the opportunity to build toward Big Ten's. Everyone was willing to take a chance and step up for the team."
Next Up
The women's swimming and diving team will return for their spring campaign on January 12 in Annapolis, Maryland where they will face-off against Navy and North Carolina.
Check GoPSUSports.com for coverage of the Penn State swimming and diving teams during the season. Follow the team on Twitter at @PennStateSWIM and on Facebook at facebook.com/pennstateswimminganddiving
