BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Penn State senior Ally McHugh led the Nittany Lions on the second day of the 2019 Big Ten Women's Swimming & Diving Championships, placing fourth in the 500 freestyle Thursday at the Counsilman Billingsley Aquatic Center.
In the team standings, Penn State ranks 10th with 146 points.
McHugh finished the 500 with a season-best time of 4:39.32, less three seconds off the pace of Minnesota's Chantal Nack, who claimed gold in 4:36.55.
"McHugh swam a tough race and still came out in fourth," said Head Coach Tim Murphy, "Overall, she did a real nice job racing."
She was nearly joined in the evening by three-time Big Ten Freshman of the Week honoree Madison Murtagh, who swam a season-best in the 500 free preliminaries of 4:49.13 to place 25th.
Penn State saw a season-best time for the 400 medley relay. Maddie Hart, Olivia Jack, Brooke Matthias and Madison Ledwith improved their time by about three seconds finishing the race in 3:38.13 to place eighth.
Additionally, three Nittany Lions recorded season-best swims in the 200 IM preliminaries. Jane Donahue improved by about one second with a new season-best of 2:02.44 while Marget Shelly and Aleksandra Tulacz recorded season-bests of 2:03.26 and 2:05.20, respectively.
Nittany Lions Madison Ledwith (23.28), Kathleen Sheridan (23.29) and Olivia Jack (23.52) all improved their times in the 50 free for the season.
"We have to be faster in the morning," said Coach Murphy, "This is a tough meet, but there's a lot of swimming left and spirits are good."
On the boards, Kamryn Umbel recorded a 246.45 for the 1-meter while teammate Christina Crowell finished the event with a score of 239.15.
"Kamryn had a good performance. She was steady and did not miss anything big," said Diving Coach Jeff DiNicola, "Christina had a great last dive and finished strong. The strong finish shows a great effort not to give up."
The Penn State women will continue competition at the Big Ten Championships Friday with preliminaries beginning at 11 a.m. and finals starting at 6:30 p.m. All sessions will be streamed live via BTN Plus on BTN2Go. Complimentary access to BTN2Go is available to viewers connected to the internet network of a Big Ten university. Fans elsewhere can sign up for the pay-per-view webcasts.
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.
A fundraiser was launched to support freshman women's swimmer Nikolette Nolte and her family for costs associated with her leukemia treatment. Any surplus funds will be donated to THON and the Jessie Rees Foundation to help others facing pediatric cancer. Donate at gopsu.info/nikistrong
